


Tell Me About Yourself

by TheShipDen



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Anal Fingering, Anal Sex, Android Gavin Reed, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst and Tragedy, Badass Gavin Reed, Badass Upgraded Connor | RK900, Blow Jobs, Body Horror, Body Worship, Bottom Gavin Reed, Case Fic, Connor & Upgraded Connor | RK900 are Siblings, Depressed Gavin Reed, Deviancy (Detroit: Become Human), Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, Dom/sub Undertones, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Falling In Love, Fire, First Kiss, First Time, Fluff, Gavin Reed Backstory, Gavin Reed is Bad at Feelings, Gavin Reed-centric, Gay Disaster Gavin Reed, Hurt/Comfort, Illegal Activities, Love Confessions, M/M, Mildly Dubious Consent, Minor Character Death, Murder, Murder Mystery, Mystery, Non-Consensual Body Modification, POV Upgraded Connor | RK900, Panic Attacks, Pre-Relationship, Protective Upgraded Connor | RK900, Rimming, Sassy Upgraded Connor | RK900, Secret Relationship, Secrets, Slow Burn, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900, Soft Upgraded Connor | RK900/Gavin Reed, Soft sex, Top Upgraded Connor | RK900, Touch-Starved Gavin Reed, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Has a Different Name, Upgraded Connor | RK900 Is Bad at Feelings, Upgraded Connor | RK900 is In Denial About Deviancy, Vanilla Kink, Ya'll thought I was playing with the slowburn, android body horror, dont @ me, just two funky androids in love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2019-07-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 14:32:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 25
Words: 86,029
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16935033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheShipDen/pseuds/TheShipDen
Summary: It wasn’t sneered at him, not thrown his way like a growl either. It kind’ve sounded like how Tina teased Gavin, yes that was precisely it. It sounded a lot like that.Was Gavin…joking with him? Was this a term of acceptance? Of trust?Why had it made him giddy and flushed-[Cooling Protocols Enabled.]______________________________________In which Gavin is an android and Nines is very much so gay for him





	1. Pretty boy with a Pretty Face

**Author's Note:**

> I have 3 Reed900 wip stories in my notes and this is the only one I've finished
> 
>  
> 
> Based on and inspired by arts of GV200 in that uniform dAMN SON IS HE HOT

Nines didn’t understand how any one android could not remain deviant. He, himself, had been created to repulse the deviancy virus and he was the most advanced creation CyberLife had the fortune to make. Though still, he had awakened to mismatched eyes along with a pair of brown ones, instilling the virus so deep into his codings and programs that Amanda was only a tale told to him from the RK800 model. He later joined the DPD along side his predecessor. 

 

He had experienced a lot thanks to the Lieutenant and RK800- insisted to be referred to as Connor- and learned the joys of life with the sorrows too. Sumo, along with any other pets he was fortunate to spot whenever doing field work, was one of the joys. He quite liked the enthusiastic response to his immediate company; the only one to really interact with him so openly and friendly. 

 

He understood, he was intimidating, was designed to be. Tall stature, stoic expression that rarely changed, sharp featured and quick witted in ways other androids weren’t even aware of. The RK has programs meant to kill, sensors prepared to infiltrate, processors at the ready to inflict damage. He was built to be the end to all deviants, to Connor too, created to stop wars before they could even start. 

 

And yet, he had never wanted to cause harm to anyone before. Of course, during a chase he found no remorse in doing so, but he did it sparingly. He never went too far, was cautious to do so, to cushion his icy stare whenever it fell onto a coworker. It was hard to intergrade successfully when he had no social relations program. 

 

Connor made up for him though, providing ice-breakers whenever they were needed and effectively getting their coworkers to drop their guards around him. Nines was thankful, really he was, and gave Connor the small, tight-lipped smile that he could manage. Connor beamed at him in response, always had, and wished Nines luck on his most recent breakthrough on a case. 

 

Which is why he found himself at his latest problem. An android that wasn’t deviant, but held the key to the ending to his case. 

 

The circle of trafficking that the entire precinct was heavily looking at had slipped up- or rather, they threw the police department a bone. A bone in the shape of a GV200 model that sported an LED that never changed color, forever stuck on red. Or perhaps, it was just constantly on edge, or maybe broken. 

 

All Nines had to do, was get some information out of it. Except, it wouldn’t talk. And with the newest law in place, it was illegal to probe an android’s memory without their consent. So he was stuck. At first Connor had given a try and Nines watched from the sidelines, he was positive it would fall victim to the RK800’s interrogation tactics, only it didn’t even bat an eye. 

 

“GV200, do you have a name?” 

 

It only stared blankly at the cuffs that restrained it. 

 

“My name is Connor.” Again. No response. “You are safe here, no harm will fall upon you.” 

 

The android looked up at Connor, who kept his neutral face but there was a beam- a smile that was shown inside his big brown eyes that Nines could never replicate. The longer the silence stretched, the less bright the expression became. 

 

“The scar on your nose there,” RK800 paused to trace it on his own face. “How did you get it?”

 

GV200 only tilted his head, at a .5th of a centimeter and though his expression never changed, Nines saw the unamusement twinkle in it’s eyes. 

 

“The trafficking group is not kind to androids, this we have uncovered based on it’s revealing crime scenes and bodily mutilation M.O. Did they give it to you?”

 

Connor was met with more indifference. 

 

“Don’t you care?” He then prompted, leaning forward to try and gage anything from the android. “Don’t you want revenge on the people that did this to you? Don’t you want to save anyone who might come after you?”

 

**_Stress Level: 62%_ **

 

Well. That much was the most they’ve gotten out of the model. Nines peered through the one-way mirror, itching to uncover the secrets the other android found so worthy to keep. He watched with fascination as the LED spun a fast red, then slowed, but stayed in the color. Never turning yellow once, never calming to a pleasant blue. 

 

Connor went through the files, showed GV200 the pictures of gore and implored more accusations to see if any stuck. Asked more questions to see if it would talk at all, but once the second hour came around and they still had nothing did Connor finally step out. They gave the android a moment while they gathered a game plan. Nines was to try as soon as the officer who found him returned. 

 

Officer Tina Chen; she was first to arrive and was the one who spotted the android tied up in the corner, motionless and stressed to almost 99%. No one quite knew how she coaxed the thing to not attack anyone, but she was responsible for possibly the biggest breakthrough they’ve ever had. 

 

“Fuckin’ hell, you think those bastards inputted some program to shut it up?” Lieutenant Anderson chimed after a thorough discussion of questioning tactics had been hashed out. 

 

“Though I am unfamiliar with such protocols, it isn’t unlikely and entirely possible.” RK800 piped in before Nines could barge into further detail about a particular analysis of the android’s serial aspects. 

 

“Sorry guys! Fowler woulda had my neck if I didn’t finish up that report pronto! We get anything?” Officer Chen announced as she entered the room. One look at Hank had her gaping. “Seriously? Nothing? Connor- did you try?”

 

“I did, my efforts were ineffective.” 

 

Her lips formed a frown, and his predecessor quickly gave her a rundown of the questions he had asked and the raised stress level. Her shoulders grew tense, Connor picked up on it quick, and soon he tried to sooth her by tipping her of the plan to have Nines grill the witness next. 

 

“Not that that doesn’t sound peachy and all,” Her features betrayed an unwillingness to proceed. Her voice wavering. “But maybe he doesn’t need people breathing down his neck and on his ass about the shitheads he just got away from, yeah? Let me go in there and try.”

 

“Officer Chen, you are not a detective.” Nines quipped, he hadn’t meant to be rude- judging by the deflated aura of the woman, he had been just that. He wanted to make up for it but the lieutenant spoke before he had the chance. 

 

“Well you did get him here in the first place, maybe the familiar face might do ‘em some good. And end up doin’ us some good. I’m game.”

 

Chen looked at Connor then, searching for permission which Connor was happy to give. “I think that is a good idea.”

 

And finally, her gaze landed on him. Nines felt reluctant to turn his witness over to her, but for the sake of his mission, he nodded. Officer Chen beamed and took a sip of her freshly brewed coffee, she called a quick ‘wish me luck’ before sauntering into the interrogation room. 

 

GV200’s sights laid on the cuffs at his wrists. His posture hadn’t changed, neither had anything else about the android. Nines watched with interest. At the sound of the door opening, it remained stubbornly ignorant. But as soon as Tina sunk into the chair and plopped her coffee down, it looked up at her. 

 

First it was a harsh glare, but it’s stress levels went down by 4% just at seeing the officer. The woman smiled, a small, warm one that only brought those levels down more. GV200 seemed to relax. 

 

“Hello there!” She started off friendly, letting herself slouch in the seat as she looked at the android with compassion. “Hopefully my boys are treating you okay- if not, let me know and I’ll give them a good kicking!”

 

Again, the model didn’t respond, but even Lieutenant Anderson saw the way it relaxed. Unfurled before all their eyes as Tina snickered at her own poor gesture of fighting. Chen grinned encouragingly once she spotted the softened glare, GV200’s eyes dropped down to her name tag. 

 

“Tina.” She cut in, the model looked at her again. Openly showing his confusion with a tilt of his head, a whopping 25.3 degree angle. Far superior to the one he showed Connor. “My friends call me Tina, but don’t worry about that! You don’t gotta tell me nothin’. After all, I’m only an officer, not here to twenty question ya to death!”

 

Again, she giggled. A hand clasped around her mouth as a blush painted her cheeks rosy, Nines was fascinated with the way GV200 was steadily growing comfortable. It’s expression softened and looked entirely content with just listening to Officer Chen rattle on and on about whatever topic she wanted to. 

 

First she started talking about the break room gossip to the android like they were old friends, moving to TV shows that she was obsessed with and even about restaurants around Detroit that were cute or too fancy. At one point, Walmart became a conversation topic. Nines wasn’t sure how she was making these topic jumps but it made the witness ease heavily. They let Tina talk to the model for as long as she wished, and was rewarded by the end of it. 

 

“Ah, sorry but I’ve gotta run! I got a few more reports on that fender-bender I told you about. It’s so boring but gotta do it. Maybe I’ll get a cookie or something for finishing.” 

 

Officer Chen stood then, took her empty cup and began to walk towards the door. Her hand placed onto the panel and right as the door opened, they all heard a voice call out. 

 

_“Tina,”_ GV200 was calling. His voice was quiet and soft, a heavy amount of static and crackling ringing into the silent room. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw both the lieutenant and his predecessor grimace. 

 

“Yeah?” She looked over her shoulder, another warm, patient smile thrown to the android’s way. 

 

It opened it’s mouth, once, twice. Building up the nerve to say something, and Officer Chen was kind enough to wait and not push, the smile didn’t leave her face as she stood in the doorway. And finally, finally- _“Gavin.”_

 

_Gavin._ The android’s name was Gavin. 

 

“See you tomorrow, Gavin.”

 

______________________________________

 

It was clear that Gavin wasn’t entirely machine, but he couldn’t be called deviant either. Nines watched it, hacking through the security camera inside it’s cell, and marveled at it. The android showed human-based qualities. It picked at it’s nails for starters, much like how Connor messed with a coin, and he even brushed his hair back whenever he seemed to be more stressed. 

 

But every time they attempted further interrogation, it remained expressionless and void. Refused to give any information on anything, whether it be to the trafficking group or about itself. All teams were frustrated, and even Nines was beginning to grow bothered by the lack of progress. 

 

The only thing that changed was whenever Officer Chen would walk into the room. Even if Gavin barely talked, he said significantly more then he ever did with Lieutenant Anderson or Connor. He had yet to try, intimidation didn’t seem to be working much at all so he shouldn’t go anywhere near the model. 

 

Gavin would perk up, listen intently and sometimes mumble a reply of his own. It’s voice sounded poor but seemed to be improving in it’s tone. Officer Chen never questioned Gavin on anything, and if she ever did, it was to ask about her appearance or if something looked cute. Cats were the table topic of today and she managed to get Gavin to help her name one of her new felines. 

 

“I was thinking Nibbles- since she likes to do nothing but bite me all the damn time.”

 

Gavin looked to be considering the idea, LED shining a bright crimson, before he deemed an answer. _“Seems appropriate.”_

 

“Of course you’d say that.” Chen laughed and patted the android’s hand in good nature. It seemed she was the only one allowed to touch the android or get anywhere close. Nines wanted to know why. 

 

Gavin grew quiet then, alerting his company who turned worried. “Hey look Gav, I’m sorry if that was overstepping boundaries. I promise I won’t ever do it-“

 

_“No, No.”_ Nines visibly tensed and pressed himself closer to the glass, next to him, Connor did the same. _“I just….”_

 

Officer Chen tried not to flinch at the sudden octave drop, it appeared that Gavin was attempting to calibrate his speech. He grimaced then, eyes avoiding her’s as he hunched in on himself. Hands coming together to pick at his nails, tugging against the cuffs that still bound him. 

 

_“I’m n-..not used to talking this much.”_

 

**_[Suspects Did Not Allow Android Communication; Denied Speech.]_ **

 

That explained the voice problem, perhaps Gavin’s vocal modulator was just a bit underused and needed a gentle start up. Hopefully there wasn’t a big internal damage problem. From the looks of the scar that ruined the chassis on his face, Nines could do nothing but hope. 

 

“Oh.” The officer swallowed, putting the picture on her phone away to address the conversation change. “Well you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to. Talk, don’t talk, I don’t care.”

 

Gavin went quiet again and continued to avoid looking at her, she seemed disappointed, maybe sad even. Nines wasn’t good enough to be able to tell either apart yet, but knew she had deemed the visit done when she got up to cross back over the room. 

 

And as before, just when Officer Chen was making her departure, did he speak up. _“Thanks.”_

 

And like last time, he was met with only acceptance. “Don’t mention it, Gav.”

 

______________________________________

 

Weeks. 

 

_Weeks_ had gone by, nothing to report on. Connor was assigned more pressing, developing issues while Nines stayed stuck on the same case. It was always on a back burner because of the slow progression, and now was only another time it was left without any light. 

 

Nines had come to appreciate the other android. Gavin was fiery when he wanted to be, growled at Lieutenant Anderson when he became too pushy or gave up too quick. He even snapped at Connor’s never ending encouragement and Nines had sat by and memorized it all. 

 

He saw the way Gavin’s nose would scrunch up ever so slightly and the scar seemed to wrinkle, how his eyebrows knitted together whenever he pondered on something for too long, how messy his hair could get whenever he tugged on it inside his blank cell. 

 

Gavin shouldn’t be visually pleasing to look at. He wasn’t cleaned up, dirty smudges all over his clothes and unnoticeable thirium splotches running down certain parts of his body. His hair was a bit greasy, indicating someone had handled him quite a bit, since androids didn’t produce such a body fluid. 

 

But Nines found his figure to be a nice distraction. Nines liked how he set his face in hard stone and refused to even acknowledge his predecessor some days, found enjoyment at the annoyance that was written as clear as day whenever Hank would attempt to trick him into spilling something. 

 

Nines just liked Gavin. He was too fascinated with all the secrets one single android contained, that it was hard not to dwell. He always thought of Gavin but lately, it became in a fond manner. He couldn’t have known when his thoughts took that turn, but when he had, it had been too late to change anything. 

 

Which might be why the RK was at the station late, staring through the one-way mirror at the smaller android and taking in how he sat in the iron chair. Posture challenging, hackles raised, itching for a fight if anyone came into his space. 

 

Now that he’s thought about it, it wasn’t fair to leave the poor droid cooped up. Hadn’t that been the same situation when he was left with those awful people? Somewhere inside his chest, a wire maybe, felt like it got misplaced or scrambled. He was stalking over to the door before he could process the thoughts swirling inside his mind. 

 

Gavin stared at him, obviously irked by his sudden unannounced appearance, but otherwise said nothing. His usual. 

 

Nines was silent as he carefully strode over to the cuffed model, stayed still long enough to be deemed as un-hostile before he proceeded. Then, kneeled before the older android. He was pleased to find that those eyes were watching him. Calculating, cataloging; maybe he was smarter then Nines gave him credit for. 

 

This close, the Rk noticed flecks of green in grey eyes too shadowed to make out from behind the glass mirror. He liked them, it almost startled him at the instability it lodged in his software. 

 

“I’m going to uncuff you.” Nines searched for anything- some form of relief or perhaps anger. Determination of some kind, a flicker of happiness, splotch of sorrow; just some emotion to go off of. But with the elegance of a pure machine, Gavin remained blank as ever. 

 

It disappointed him. 

 

Slowly, he moved his hands up and showed Gavin the keys. Nines wasn’t worried about a possible assault, he would be quicker then the GV200 and stronger- ending the little outburst would be too easy. There was no outrunning Nines, no escaping the station, and as much as that seemed cruel it had to be done. 

 

As soon as the cuffs were off, uncertainty rang clear through those eyes. Nines didn’t like it, so he backed up and retreated to the door. Freedom was small but accessible and if he could offer a means that was given to him- as undeserving as he was to it- he could offer the same to this android. 

 

Gavin rubbed at his wrists, focus never leaving the RK. As much as he’d like to say he was unaffected by it, he personally, thought the best of the moment. Gavin often didn’t look at anyone longer then a few seconds, if not with a glare. Nines was receiving not a glare but a hardened, steely gaze. A long lasting amount of eye contact only Officer Chen had been privy to. 

 

Pride, that is what he felt. Triggered by the GV200 now slowly standing before him. 

 

That was enough, rough means only made the progress take steps back, so Nines figured he’d let Gavin work things out on his own time. 

 

He stepped away. Kept the door to the interrogation room open as his heels softly padded out of the darkened room and to the corridor, he was headed to the break room. 

 

There was trash the RK liked to pick up, organize the mugs and cups that were there, and update any reports he might’ve ignored in favor of the current investigation. Connor left with the lieutenant only fifty-four minutes ago, the rest of the department ending their shifts and leaving for home. 

 

Nines was welcomed at the Anderson residence, but he turned it down. Why do that and waste time when he could learn everything there was to know about Gavin?

 

The choice was easy to him. 

 

Small steps earned his attention, though he never moved from his spot at the sink. They were slow and precise, if not a bit uneven. Staggering, in a way. Nines knew Gavin had internal injuries but he refused to mention it or accept help in any degree. 

 

A difficult android, but a lovely challenge. And if Nines knew he liked anything, it was a challenge. 

 

Those steps stopped, most likely staring him down before they moved on. The android’s arms were looped around himself, shrinking into his own being- a defensive mechanism. He was scared, even if he didn’t portray it via visibly. Nines understood all the same. 

 

“Officer Chen likes to spend her breaks at that table.” He commented with a tilt of his head, mimicking the soft tone he’d witness Tina use too often. It didn’t hold the same affect, if only, making Gavin more on edge. 

 

The pursed lip, deadset gaze was his only indication that Gavin had been listening or paying him much attention at all. Nines watched as the android stumbled over to the table in the corner- he ran his palm against the surface. The LED that never changed spun quickly, slowed, and sped up once more, it followed a pace that left the RK confused. 

 

He did not like that one bit, but accepted there was little to do to change it. 

 

Gavin took his hand away then, observed it as if searching for something, some trace of evidence that his befriended officer really did spend her time here before he was leaning onto the table. Elbows squarely on the table top and sights set on him.

 

_“Why?”_ Was all the model said, his voice scraggly and grainy. Stabilizing, Nines thought. Albeit poorly. 

 

“Would you rather stay there?” Nines countered- without meaning to, honest. He didn’t miss the sudden tense up and made a mental note to better watch his dialogue output. 

 

Gavin stared, as always, but there was something different about the way he looked at Nines. The RK could only sense it, as human as a term was, and stared back. For a long minute, neither looked away. But then Gavin deemed it enough and pushed himself away from the table and walked out. 

 

**_[Pre-Construction Failed.]_ **

 

He hadn’t noticed that had started up. 

 

**_[Re-Run Program?]_ **

**_-Yes.  
>No._ **

 

What was he constructing, exactly? 

 

Whatever it was, the probability was low. 

 

Once finished up, he made sure to keep his steps audible so Gavin would not be startled by his presence. He found the android gapingly around the place, parked beside Tina’s desk and looking over the empty chair. 

 

**_[GV200; Gavin Finds Optimal Comfort With Officer Chen.  
Gavin Misses Officer Chen. ]_ **

 

What a silly thing for a machine to want, but it was one of those instances that Nines found that Gavin wasn’t as robotic as he seemed. He served a purpose, one that was lost to him now, and he was lost finding what he was suppose to do now. He, himself, had been there only Connor and Markus had been a tremendous help in his own endeavors. 

 

Gavin had no one, he had only known a gang of abusive criminals before being dumbed to the side. Abandoned. Alone, in a big station with no one on his side, with no one to understand him. A place full of humans, the enemy, that only wanted to enslave him and cause him harm. 

 

Nines pitied the poor soul, wished to fix the situation and maybe bring justice to the model. But he couldn’t, not without evidence and information. All of which Gavin kept safe- though why, was his concern. 

 

“Officer Lewis is Officer Chen’s partner, as she’s informed you, his desk is the one adjacent to her’s.” 

 

Gavin’s head snaps up, now glaring, at him. Nines makes sure to remain mellow as he stands, hands perfectly placed behind his back, by his own desk. 

 

“Lieutenant Anderson is harbored there, RK800, named Connor, is his partner. He sits to the left of the human.”

 

Gavin stiffens then, hands curling into a heated ball. Nines carries on. 

 

“Detective Ben Collins, you have yet to meet, sits here. Every morning he brings in donuts for his fellow colleges, Officer Chen likes a chocolate glazed one. He is a well-mannered individual, model cop, and awaiting his retirement. ”

 

Nines spots the smaller android’s stress levels decrease. He feels warmth, it leaves him a little confused.

 

“Officer Wilson respects his colleges fiercely, he sits here.” And he continues to name all the detectives or officers surrounding them. 

 

With each name and amenable trait, Gavin looks more and more at ease. The RK promptly stops before he could name his own desk, deeming it unnecessary and instead moved on to their beloved Captain. He dared to admit he thought he saw a wave of humor sparkle in the smaller android’s eyes. Saw the twitch of his lips- 

 

**_[GV200; Gavin Finds Mirth With Captain Fowler. ]_ **

 

The rest of the night carries on in a similar fashion. Nines shows Gavin the old storage unit, which he enjoyed immensely if his analysis has anything to go by, and goes through a few files of old interest. A few misfiled cold cases end up there and he then fixes the issue by correcting the department’s digital archives and manually fixing the mistake. 

 

Time passes quickly, for the first time that the RK has ever truly noticed. He always never understood that phrase; Time Flies. Time never speeds up nor does it slow. Humans were faulty for even considering it ever did, time cannot be manipulated, time is a factual thing. A variable that he never had to worry about. But now- he hadn’t the faintest idea as to why he was being alerted to only having a few more minutes until the first coworker arrived. 

 

He feels cruel, to put it simply, walking Gavin back to the cold, dark interrogation room. Nines feels evil as he clamps the cuffs back around his wrists and he allows himself to really frown then. 

 

_Software Instability_

 

**_[Run Diagnostic Check?]_ **

 

**_-Yes.  
>No._ **

 

“If you’d prefer not to be questioned this morning, I can-“ _Why was he suggesting this, this was not his place._

 

_Software Instability_

 

“-persuade Lieutenant Anderson to withhold on anything pertaining to the case.”

 

Gavin- for all his ‘flamboyant’ reactions- stills then. Perfectly stills. No picking, no fidgeting, no distant gaze or stubborn avoidance. 

 

“Officer Chen is still free to continue her…unique line of interrogation, if that is deemed fit enough for you.”

 

Nines waits, sees the red color swim in it’s processing. A minute passes by, but he is patient. Gavin is trying to see through a lie that is not there, it makes him wonder what exactly he has stored inside his databanks. Nines wants-

 

_Software Instability_

 

-to know. To understand. He wants to be able to make the android smile in full, make him relax in the same way Tina does. He wants to be able to free this machine from it’s confinements. If this raw amount of feeling is what Markus felt for liberation, Nines now can comprehend it. 

 

_“Why?”_ Gavin asks again. 

 

Only this time, Nines does not have an answer. This time, it’s his turn to stare at Gavin and not say a word. 

 

He’s surprised it works. “Okay.”

 

“Okay.” He repeats and stands. _Guilt,_ he has come to identify, tastes sour as he leaves the room with Gavin still tethered to it.


	2. Tentative Hands and Small Smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _“I want your name.”_
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> A name, Gavin wanted to know _his_ name.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nines is just so fuckin gay throughout this entire chapter, I call this a slow burn but tbh its kinda really nOT
> 
>  
> 
> just tap it baby, just tap it

As Nines had promised, Gavin is not questioned first thing in the morning. Connor doesn’t peer inside and Lieutenant Anderson does not even bat an eye at the witness. All in all, Gavin is left alone. 

 

Which would’ve been completely fine if it hadn’t been that he was chained to the metal seat he occupied, sitting there for hours until Officer Chen clocked in and dropped by for the usual conversation. 

 

As Nines watched the android from behind the mirror, he found that Gavin didn’t appear as threatening as before. He had a somber, curious glint to him, like he was thinking about something. If Nines had to make a guess, he’d assume it would be about what he allowed the model to experience. He wondered if Gavin would attempt to bring it up with Tina.

 

Speaking of, he knew the Officer would be in at any time. She most often came into work around eight, when she was running behind, eight-thirty but usually no later then nine. Gavin was almost comfortable looking in the silent room, hunching almost completely over the table as he inspected his own hands. 

 

Curious, Nines raised his hand and touched the glass. He was so intrigued by the android before him; all he wanted was answers but the GV didn’t even allow him touch, much less an interface. He wanted so much of what the other had. _He wanted to know._

 

“Mornin’ Nines!” Officer Chen chirped as soon as she entered the room, her gaze merry as she walked right up to the mirror. 

 

If she found his posture strange, she didn’t comment on it, only raising her brow in question. “Good Morning, Officer Chen. Nothing has changed over the night.”

 

**_Software Instability._ **

 

There was no denying that fact- but things _had_ changed overnight. It was a mystery as to why he felt the need to cover it up, he hadn’t done anything wrong. Nor had Gavin. There was no attempt at a fight or an escape, nothing to indicate that it would happen in the future. Because Gavin had been dumped, scrapped. There was no where to run to, no person to keep safe. 

 

Maybe that was why the RK didn’t have a bad experience last night. 

 

“Isn’t Gavin’s like, model series an all-purpose-line?”

 

Nines blinked, pausing in his train of thought to coax his LED to remain blue. His eyes were stuck, however, on Gavin. On the red that remained. _Why?_

 

“Yes, they can adapt rather quickly to a new situation or download any program to make their service easier or smoother for their handler.” Some people referred to them as ‘Replacement’ Androids, or fillers for when one was busted and in the repair shop. Nines did not like the derogatory terms so he didn’t share them. 

 

Officer Chen seemed to understand too, perhaps in the same time it took him to process the information and the void expression of their witness. Her lips pursed. She was not pleased, it seemed. 

 

“Thanks, Nines.” It was spoken lowly, rushed, and she turned sharply on her heel to prance into the room with vigor. 

 

The RK watched; Gavin’s shoulders shot up at the door, relaxed as he tried to cover it up as him leaning closer to the table, leaning his hands forwards to try and snatch whatever it was she was bringing in to show him today. It seemed that Gavin appreciated the pictures he was shown, liked to see and discuss the things that made Tina happy. 

 

Officer Chen brought something out, something that had remained nestled inside one of her uniform’s pockets. A small little cat toy plush, small enough to go around someone’s keychain. Gavin’s eyes seemed to widen in size- or perhaps the unnatural twinkle in his eyes threw Nines off. 

 

He wasn’t used to seeing Gavin like that. 

 

He liked seeing it. Liked the sudden surprise. 

 

“Figured you’d want a lil’ somethin’-somethin’ from your favorite gal pal.” Nines could easily pick up the teasing in her tone, but undermining it was something far softer. Something gentle in nature and genuine, Gavin seemed to be able to pick up on it as well. 

 

He stalled and the RK noted how his circuits froze but how still he was sitting, before slowly; tentative hands opened up and reached as far as the chains binding them would allow. And he sighed once the soft faux fur was nestled inside his opened palms. Nines didn’t let the odd texture of his palms go unnoticed.

 

They looked… _tarnished_ , covered by the synthetic skin as if to hide a mystery. The subtle difference going unnoticed by a human but being stored into detail by an android. 

 

The long sleeved hoodie blocked anything else from his view though, a shame. 

 

**_[Gavin Worked Manually.  
Project; Yet to be Determined.]_ **

 

Gavin stared down the toy, flipped it around and rubbed his thumbs into it’s fuzzy stomach. He held it tenderly, with such a respectful hold that Nines could mistake the explosive tantrums he threw as a system glitch. Faulty code; but Nines _never_ made a mistake. This was new territory. 

 

The model would need to return to stasis one night, preferably soon, if the slight tremor in the other’s hand was anything to go by. Maybe it was the repairs still needing to be determined. This was the longest he’s gone with so little information. How did Gavin hide it all so well?

 

How could Gavin manage to look so soft while in handcuffs and littered with scars?

 

Irrational thought. Nines felt his eye twitch at the red highlight of a -Software Instability- that plagued his optical units. He had no business labeling the android as such things. This android was involved in a serious, dangerous trafficking case and was wasting time by withholding vital information. 

 

He hated the pang of sympathy that spread through every wire like a fire. Because Gavin had a reason to have such secrecy.

 

 _“Take me for some kinda secret-soft asshole?”_ Gavin finally mused, wiping the look of surprise and endearment and replacing it with a smuge shrug of indifference. _“You’ve been watchin’ too many movies.”_

 

**_HUD REPORT; GV200 is lying.  
It is touched._ **

 

Nines wasn’t exactly certain why he had delegated his interrogation programs to search for that, his thoughts muddled when he felt almost proud that the android was pleased. He noticed that whenever the GV felt inclined, his chest puffed out a little. 

 

**_[Witness Knows Human Quirks.]_  
** **_-Hair adjustment  
_** _**-Fidgeting hands  
**_ _**-Chest boast**_

 

“You never fail to flatter me, Gavin.” She smiled.

 

And this time-

 

_This time-_

 

Gavin gave a very small, almost unseeable, twitch-of-the-mouth- grin in return. 

 

 

Nines saw only code. 

 

______________________________________

 

Tina and Gavin went undisturbed for a while; Anderson managed to convince Folwer that the type of connection they were establishing was vital to progressing in the case, Connor was quick to follow up on the inquiry with his in-depth level of reasoning. The captain had little choice but to nod his head and dismiss them. 

 

It was an action done out of pity.

 

And as much as Nines wanted to be disgusted by the notion, he couldn’t. Instead, his eyes drifted to the door. Unwilling to take Gavin back to his cell. He shouldn’t find a problem with it, logically the android was safer in the station then anywhere else. But Gavin didn’t have the choice to stay, and that was what got him in the end. 

 

Nines didn’t understand why Gavin- this _defective android_ \- had made him think more then he’s ever done so before. It just didn’t make sense (nothing did anymore). He’d come across tales of woe that were worse then he could ever picture. But it was something about Gavin that scrambled his processors, defiled his systems and rewrote his own coding. He was more confused then he’s ever been. 

 

He straightened up. 

 

Thinking too hard on something irrelevant to the case was going to get him nowhere. These thoughts were dangerous, he knew. Connor had shared many stories of how humans descended into a pitiful ball of sobs when they let their mind dwell on matters that didn’t seem to be in their normal routine. Something out of their control. He did not need that. 

 

Nines was professional. 

 

He was so much so that he swiped his hands down his jacket front, smoothing out nonexistent wrinkles and raking his hair (which didn’t need it) back into placement before he walked in. His skin peeled back, unblemished unlike the GV’s, and activated the door. 

 

Gavin stopped chuckling, tensing at the soft whoosh it made. Officer Chen looked over her shoulder at him, nodded before declaring her goodbyes. She lingered on the table- from here, Nines couldn’t see her expression. 

 

She appeared to be waiting for something, something that likely never came as she patted his forearm and walked away from the table. Her dress shoes clicking softly, Nines stood and waited for her to go. 

 

Gavin liked to be uncrowded. Bustling out the door while Tina and other interacting coworkers were sauntering around her would only lead to increased stress levels. 

 

He walked forward, slowly as if approaching a wild animal. Maybe that’s what Gavin was behind the stone cold exterior; a savage android who did it’s master’s bidding upon order, a machine only ever responding with yes. Or, Gavin could be entirely defiant and enraged, plotting murders inside his head of his captors, of the people at the station who’s eyes lingered on him too long. 

 

Nines found he could not pick a call to better suit the model. 

 

He found he didn’t like either options he provided himself with. 

 

His presence made the android stiffen, and though Nines was used to it, he found that he didn’t _want_ to be. At least Gavin was making an effort to look at him- eyes hovering on his model’s initials on the white uniformed jacket. 

 

“I’m here to escort you to your cell.” Nines commented, showing a ring of keys before implementing them for it’s intended use. Gavin didn’t move at first, he never did. 

 

The RK stalked off towards the door, and was ensured by the footsteps that fell perfectly into step behind his own, like a shadow. As soon as they crossed the doorframe, Nines shut it and let himself openly stare at the plush toy Gavin was gripping tightly. 

 

**_[GV200 Is Nervous.  
-Sub. Objective: Soothe GV200. ]_ **

 

He didn’t question the mission now flashing across his UI, instead dropped his hand to it’s position behind his back. 

 

“What will you name it?” 

 

It was a simple question. 

 

It was a _reasonable_ question. 

 

It had absolutely nothing to do with the case, the trafficking circle, the secrets that Gavin kept caged inside a maze of thorns and needles. But the model didn’t flinch, didn’t raise his eyes, didn’t hunch or walk off. 

 

His LED red, always crimson. He was probably just defective, no android could be under such strain for so long. 

 

Officer Collins was extra loud in the break room, his sudden booming laughter made Gavin’s head snap up. He sent a glare, whenever the human clambered out with staggering steps as he continued to talk loudly across the precinct to a college did Nines suspect that Gavin did not bode well with the exchange. 

 

Gavin strayed closer to Nines then, still glaring daggers at the people who so much as glanced at him. His mere sights trying to kill the officer if such a thing was possible. His death grip on the cat made even him wince internally. 

 

**_[GV200 Is Nervous.  
-Sub. Objective: Soothe GV200. ]_ **

 

Again, it blinked in his face. Highlighted in red as it screamed at him to do something. Deciding on the most positive reconstruction, Nines stepped around Gavin and put himself in the line of view. A blockade, if anything were to happen, Nines would be able to protect the model first.

 

“Shall we continue?”

 

He didn’t wait for a response, none would come anyway, and began walking again. Gavin, once more, trailed behind him albeit much closer this time around. He almost walked directly beside the RK, if Nines were to slow and time the seconds down precisely, their shoulders would brush. 

 

He wanted that. 

 

Why did he _want_ that?

 

_“…I don’t know.”_

 

Gavin’s words were as guarded as he currently was. His voice a soft melody carried on a wind. It sounded less glitchy, more controlled and human. Talking with Officer Chen, even if in small bursts, seemed to be doing wonders. It only cemented his earlier suspicions about his voice. 

 

“Would you like ideas?” 

 

They approached the holding cells, only a human being detained for a drunken display of aggression. They’d be out in the next twenty-four hours, their cell sat one down and across from the android’s own. The doors sensed their inhabitant and slid open, with some help from a wireless connection, and awaited for Gavin to enter. 

 

The GV looked hesitant to move, glanced around the busy place for a lingering moment and then took two steps inside. The cell door shut quickly, securing it’s locks in place to hold it’s prisoner. 

 

_“I want your name.”_

 

A name, Gavin wanted to know _his_ name. 

 

For a moment, Nines thought he’d caught a virus which caused his systems to expel unnecessary heat but the notion was impossible. There was barely a virus his programming couldn’t detect and break, so why was his thirium pump regulator dissipating the moderate pace he’d set? It was going faster. 

 

Maybe he should run a diagnostic later. 

 

“RK900.” He responded after a moment’s too long pause. He hoped he hadn’t ruined the entire thing. 

 

“900?” Gavin echoed, his grip finally passive on the plush. His thumbs stroked the cat’s fur, he looked more calculating then judging. 

 

Almost looked….domestic, if he had to put his finger on it. 

 

“Yes. I am the latest prototype CyberLife manufactured before it’s departure. My existence is minimally discussed within the media, I was not yet on open market for goods and services.” Nor would he have ever been. 

 

He was built for war, for chaos, designed for inhumane methods of extraction. He wasn’t intended to be used to play nice, yet here he was. Staring at another android who’s uses could propose the same if the files and updates were downloadable. And perhaps Gavin knew that. Perhaps his twinkling eyes with their specks of green were drinking up information on their own. 

 

Maybe he had hoped to hear that answer. 

 

_“Nines, then.”_

 

He cocked his head to the side, questioning. “Nines?”

 

_“That’s what Tina calls you. Introduce yourself like that, dumbass.”_

 

The insult is sharp, spoken quickly and scornful. There’s a pause of silence on both their parts, with the GV leaning away from the clear wall between them. He is on edge- did he think that Nines would react with violence? 

 

His programming kicked in, surging through the wires and sensors in his brain, processing the order. It wasn’t an order, it wasn’t- “Hello, Gavin. My name is Nines, a pleasure to make your acquaintance.” 

 

The model went stock still, frozen in better words, at the robotic delay of a message. Nines mentally lectured himself, fists behind his back tightening in their grip as he reminded himself to appear unbothered. 

 

Then- _oh, then._

 

Gavin was doing the small twitching he’d seen before. The corners of his mouth quirking up but barely managing to remain in the scowl he had adopted. He muttered a simple, _“Idiot fuckin’ trashcan.”_

 

It wasn’t sneered at him, not thrown his way like a growl either. It kind’ve sounded like how Tina teased Gavin, yes that was precisely it. It sounded a lot like that. 

 

Was Gavin…joking with him? Was this a term of acceptance? Of trust?

 

Why had it made him giddy and flushed-

 

**_[Cooling Protocols Enabled.]_ **

 

Oh, Deviancy was unfair. Constantly confusing and so very unfair, but addicting.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know it isn't Tuesday but I finished this like,,,,Wednesday and I'm probably gonna end up uploading updates on Tuesdays so heads up!!
> 
>  
> 
> Tune In Next Time on: Will Nines Make a Fuckin Move??


	3. I Carry You In My Thoughts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tina beamed, looked as relaxed as he thought Gavin should have been. 
> 
>  
> 
> Gavin was on edge again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Holidays friends!! I hope you all enjoy whatever you celebrate! And if you don't celebrate anything at all- relax, and have some fun in whatever you decide to do. 
> 
>  
> 
> Merry Christmas to those who have it, and Happy Hanukkah! (Bonus: Enjoy your Malkah friends <3)

He was called in to do some field work, another report about an android massacre type of scene. Nines arrives promptly and begins to make his way pass the holographic _‘Do Not Cross’_ lines. He pays no mind to the surrounding crowd and police- they are not important. 

 

What’s important is gathering all the evidence that he can and returning to the station, returning to Gavin. 

 

Nines enters the office building and goes straight to the janitor’s closet. Already there’s a trail of thirium leading him; both fresh and new, invisible to the human eye but so plainly there. The door is wide open, scratches and scrapes staining the tiles on the floor and around the door frame.

 

He spots what is safe to assume a madman’s artwork. 

 

An android’s head with only the neck and the briefest section of shoulders are welded to the shelves. The poor thing’s arms had been dismantled, a hand with an unnatural amount of fingers on all sides jammed in the center of the poor victim’s forehead with an eye in the palm. The legs that belonged to it hung like earrings from the ceiling. A marked tag on the floor showed the android’s stomach compartment on the ground; inside was it’s heart and pump. It was still oozing thirium. 

 

This was a true murder- mutilation of the sickest kind. 

 

Wires were burned, some cut- tubes and joints twisted or stabbed through. Nines was appalled by the gore, it made something inside his circuits pop when his eye’s fell upon the sight. It was a WR400 android; a Traci model who went missing almost a year ago. She disappeared out of thin air, no sightings, no witnesses, no reports, nothing. There were no leads with these kinds of kidnappings, not when they pertained to the group the DPD was hunting. 

 

Dipping his finger into the thirium, he brought it to his mouth and licked. 

 

**_[Multiple Compounds Inside Thirium._**  
**_-Multiple Victims? ]_**

 

“So- what’s the verdict, judge?” Chris- as he’s insisted to be referred to as- approached the RK and looked up at him once he stood back up. 

 

Nines ignored the title. He understood that the human was only joking- a lecture he’s gotten many times from Anderson and Officer Chen. “The victim was struggling as she was dragged to the room, indicting from the damage to the property.”

 

“Wait, she was alive? How come she couldn’t just run off?”

 

He glanced back to the WR400’s limbs, picking them apart piece by piece in a matter of seconds before he responded. “She was in low power mode judging by the thirium pools, and by the placement of her components, her limbs had been fractured, if not worse.”

 

Chris took in a breath and looked up. A coping mechanism, Nines found, that the human often did a lot whenever a scene became too much. Looking at the shocked and startled face of the Traci model, he could understand. This was unjust, cruel. 

 

This is what Gavin came from. 

 

“Damn,” Was all the human beside him muttered. 

 

“There may be more victims around the area, I suggest we expand the investigation by the next few blocks.”

 

“You think they started to off androids in pairs?”

 

Nines took one look at the multitude of fingers splaying in different directions on the single hand, saw nicks and scratches. Some bigger, some smaller, delicate and slender while others were big and wide and rough. “I am positive.”

 

Chris gaped at him, took in a few more larger gulps of air before shaking his head and marching off. He called a few officers over, informing them to expand their search and dismissed them afterwards. 

 

This fit into the other crime scenes they’ve spied, matched the splatters of blue blood that painted every wall inside the kill room, lined up with the disfigurement the force has come to expect by now. Only one thing was missing, he’d have to find it before he could do anything else. Then, and only then, could he head back to the station. Perhaps Gavin was ready to talk now. 

 

As gently as he could, though he was very much so aware it was not necessary, he kept his touches soft. Feather light as he stroked the poor girl’s dented cheek. Nines scanned her, fiddled with the countless fingers attached to the hand that didn’t belong and found what he was looking for on the left knuckle of the sixth finger. It belonged to an AP700. 

 

Nines stored the image, transferred it to the digital folder and updated the copy that belonged to the department before he gave a final scan of the floor. 

 

He had a question he needed to ask.

 

______________________________________

 

“Welcome back, soldier!” Officer Chen saluted, one hip jetted out informally upon his initial arrival into the station. 

 

“Thank you for the welcome.” Nines spoke evenly, blatantly ignoring the improper use of title once more. Seriously, were humans just that incompetent or found such mirth in unamusing statements?

 

“So…What should I know? Find anything useful or new?” Tina directed a sympathetic expression his way- Nines wasn’t certain as to why. He didn’t need such coddling like Gavin did. Perhaps, thats just how the officer worked. He decided to let it slide. 

 

“Nothing new, except for the victim. We’re looking into a possible double homicide- but as of now, it is merely a theory.” It was…something, alright. And he’d been told by the lieutenant that something was better then nothing. 

 

Tina frowned, debating something rather tedious- if her scrunched nose and brows indicated anything. “I’m worried, Nines.”

 

That was surprising- not that humans couldn’t handle the pressure or stress of this job, that much he had come to always expect- but she was confiding in him. Opening up a fraction of a bit, and she didn’t seem bothered by it at all. He straighten his composure, readying himself to give some kind of feedback in return. That is what most humans did- wasn’t it? 

 

“If we keep turning up with nothing on our hands, Fowler might demand we get a warrant or take it up with someone up high to force an interface with Gavin. Our district's solving percentages are only going lower and lower the longer this case stays open!”

 

“I’m sure I may be able to close a few cold cases, and Connor is working diligently on closing more recent cases.” He stated facts, or merely the truth of the present. He wasn’t sure the best approach to such raw emotions so practicality would have to do. Nines wished he was more like Connor in these situations; he wished to smile kindly and bat his eyelashes, wished to always say the right thing to put someone right at ease, to make everyone happy with the current course of action. But he could do none of it. 

 

It ate him.

 

“But will that be enough?” Her eyes seemed to glimmer at him, many late-nights’ exhaustion screaming at the RK through the bags under her eyes. She appeared small. Odd. 

 

_System Instability._

 

He didn’t like it. 

 

“I don’t know what the fuck went on while Gavin was with those people- but a forced interface? That’s such bullshit! What are we gonna do? Where do we go from here? What the fuck is the plan-“

 

_“-stile!_ It’s turned violent!!” Someone yelled, the door to the interrogation room was open and loud noises escaped from it’s breech. 

 

Chairs groaned, there was a metallic bang coming from something slamming against the table- or maybe some _one_ slamming against it- while there were loud curses and protests from both defending parties clearly heard. Lieutenant Anderson seemed to be there as well, his deep growl was the easiest to hear based on pitch and proximity. He didn’t like the sudden twisted feeling coiling inside his circuits. Some deep rooted misfortune, almost as brooding as Amanda’s presence had been, exploded behind his eyelids. 

 

Officer Chen stared wide-eyed at the disturbance, turning to the RK model who squinted slightly in the direction of the chaos. 

 

Nines could pick up Gavin’s voice, screaming with rage and boiling with venom as he shouted a quick: _“Don’t fuckin’ touch me!”_

 

He felt a rush surge throughout his systems, one similar to the feeling he got between his wires whenever a chase began. Code that demanded he make a move, directives and sensors that came to life right before his eyes while time slowed down by the very second. He found himself calculating probabilities that came from nowhere and all tied to every small glimpse of movement around the room. 

 

**_[Gavin Is In Danger.]_ **

 

It flashed, unforgiving bits of objectives crumpling before his very fingertips to make way for the priority. It didn’t make sense; triggering high-level functions and programs from him like this, as if the situation was dire. It might have felt that way but- logically, it wasn’t. Nines always fell back to asking why. He knew dire situations involved a dying human being or a bust gone wrong, this was neither, but it stabbed at him all the same. 

 

Tina’s footsteps thundered away from his side- she was rushing into the room, features dead set as she disappeared around the corner. 

 

Why was he standing there?

 

Why did it even _matter_ to him?

 

“Stay back Tina, he’s dangerous!” Chris barked. 

 

When his feet finally moved, the RK model found himself inside the interrogation room. Feeling involved eased some of the pent up fractions of programs running simultaneously. 

 

Gavin was being pressed down by a point in his back by Chris as Tina squirmed in an attempt to peel the Lieutenant off of her. She was yowling at the other officer to stop what he was doing, and for Anderson to let her go, to let her handle this. But neither seemed to be listening- which only made the android below them all angrier. And more distressed. Gavin looked absolutely livid with his eyes glued on the woman. 

 

**_Stress Level: 78%_ **

 

In a moment, Gavin had bucked himself up and swept his leg up high, hitting Chris squarely to the head. Nines watched, a bit stunned, as the officer crashed into Anderson- who in turn, released Tina to grab Chris before they all made a pile onto the floor. He only succeeded into staggering backwards until his back collided with the wall, groaning as Chris wheezed in compliant. 

 

Officer Chen squawked once she got her bearings, but was quick to put herself between Gavin and the other humans. Strangely, Gavin didn’t seem to mind at all- if he did, he hid it well, at least. 

 

“Chen, get out of the way! You’ll get kicked!”

 

“You get the fuck out the way! You’re only instigating!” Tina fired back, the hair nestled inside her bun was becoming frizzy and unkept. Strands fell around her face as she huffed, the adrenaline coursing through them all making the greedy gulps of air to calm the racing heartbeats like heroin. She looked angry herself, and Nines found he understood. He almost felt the same. 

 

Almost.

 

“It’s compromised- had been from the beginning!” That came from Anderson, Nines did not approve of the comment. 

 

“You don’t even know that!” 

 

“Well it seems like a likely story, considering!”

 

**_Stress Level: 82%_ **

 

“Please, refrain from speaking so loud.” Nines cooly spoke, finding his voice again amongst all the brewing arguments. “Officer Chris, Lieutenant, please exit. I can handle this from here.”

 

“Nines-“

 

“Now, or I will remove you myself.” The RK made sure he held no emotions on his expression, was positive his voice dipped low enough to finalize his point and dispel any more protests. He spied that Gavin stiffened, relaxed, but tensed once more. He didn’t need to be so guarded, Nines didn’t want him to be- and neither did Tina. 

 

Hank was storming off, Chris much more cautiously and making a show of staring confused and increasingly concerned at the remaining two in the room. Then he sent a warning look- directed at Gavin. How idiotic.

 

All were silent in the room, no one dared to move as the door slipped shut behind the humans and left them to themselves. 

 

Tina seemed to be fuming quietly, as soon as she rounded to the GV though, her rage contorted to genuine worry. 

 

“Are you okay? What happened?” Her hands eased the android into his seat once more, rubbing up and down his back for a solid second after he was down before pulling away and looking him over. Nines could admit to doing the same, although, with his internal scans. 

 

Gavin only grunted, _“ ‘m fine.”_

 

He did not seem fine. Gavin looked to be harboring the anger inside his circuits, fists clenched and yanking at the cuffs stubbornly. The only emotion he ever seemed to show to the department, the only thing that kept him inside the deviant consideration theory. 

 

Officer Chen was not satisfied with that answer, if her frown had to say anything. It made Gavin still. His eyes flickered around her, curling into the table, guilty looking- if Nines had to name it. _“Un-…Uncuff me?”_

 

Tina stared at him then, gaping before shooting the same look at Nines. He awkwardly shrugged his shoulder- the action seemed so foolish to Nines if he was to come clean- and he tossed her the keys. 

 

Gavin wouldn’t do anything, and if he attempted, Nines would correct that. 

 

Begrudgingly. 

 

He found that he did not want to be resorted to that, his gaze filled with pity. Gavin’s LED was red, such a deep color with no changes, but it was justified this time. 

 

Wordlessly, the model was unchained. Officer Chen offered him space as he rubbed at the angry marks on his arms, the white of his chassis was almost see-through with the skin there. He must have gotten really shaken up. Poor thing, Nines couldn’t help but to frown himself. 

 

Gavin stood, approached Tina on staggering steps and gestured for her to sit down. Curious, but not unwilling, she obeyed him. The way the GV held himself was almost small looking. The way his hands twitched and trembled a bit as he reached out and plucked her cap away. 

 

Nines watched, as he always does, and wondered at what the model was up to and why. Always _why._

 

The android tugged on the hair band that kept the officer’s hair up and it bounced heartily onto her shoulders, she gasped and quickly tried to correct the issue. That wasn’t within proper uniform regulation- Nines was aware, and he knew that Tina was also very aware of that fact. 

 

Gavin smacked her hands away, a scowl crossing his face as he paused to wait for her to settle down again. 

 

“He is going to fix your bun,” Nines commented out loud. He wasn’t sure what possessed him to do so, but then those grey-green specks fell onto him and he was glad he opened his mouth. Perhaps- he saw gratitude in them, for stating what he could not.

 

There was definitely something staring back into his own eyes. 

 

“Oh,” Officer Chen mused. Hummed and tilted her head back to provide a better angle for styling. “Then, go on!”

 

Gavin huffed, grumbled, seemingly annoyed. But his stress levels went down, dropped, purely plummeted. He was relieved. 

 

Nines got to see the care with which the GV used to card his fingers through the human’s hair, coaxed it into a low ponytail at the base of her skull. He brushed through the strands of hair again, slowly and gently, twisting it this way and that, tenderly tying the black band back around it. He tucked stray pieces back into proper placement, used his fingers to smooth out the path to the thing and shyly plopped the cap back onto her head after adding a few bobby pins to the mix. 

 

Tina beamed, looked as relaxed as he thought Gavin should have been. 

 

Gavin was on edge again. 

 

“Not bad! Thanks, Gav. Maybe I should get you to do my hair more often.” It was a tease. Officer Chen wasn’t aware of how the model was feeling, but regardless, the words fixed the issue as quickly as it came. 

 

_“You…”_ His voice still fluctuated, but showed signs of correcting. Hopefully permanently. _“..you like it?”_

 

“Of course, thank you! I appreciate it! I really wasn’t looking forward to restyling that damned thing myself. Saved me some effort.~”

 

At least Nines learned one thing today, if nothing else. 

 

**_[ GV200 Utilities Notes:_**  
**_-Manual Labor_** _._  
**_-Domestic Android._**  
**_-Possible Defense/Body Guard. ]_**

 

It made sense, if the GV200s were crafted for adaption then it shouldn’t be a surprise that Gavin had certain skills. But just how many, was Nines’ new question. And what, plus who, were they for. What benefits did it bring?

 

Gavin only became more and more intriguing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow I'm writing smut for these two cowards for "Baby, You're Unfair" and it's so,,,,sLOW GOING
> 
>  
> 
> writing 50k+ fluff? No problem.  
> typing porn with a decent plot? don't know her, she blocked me
> 
>  
> 
> what's a writer to do???? Die??? 
> 
>  
> 
> ig it's gonna take a while to type up //sigh


	4. Telling Lies Just For You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines tried not to let the sudden giddy feeling radiating off of his programs affect him. As if Gavin finally opening up about something to him was just another normal thing that happened about a hundred times a day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well!!! Happy New Years everyone!!!
> 
>  
> 
> Hopefully everyone had a fun time and enjoyed themselves!! Stay safe and responsible kids, don't do anything stupid with those fireworks! Saw a LOT of family these past few weeks, been really hampering my writing time and making chapters take yEARS to get done
> 
>  
> 
> My school's also about to start up again-
> 
>  
> 
> let me escape with my two gays

“Forgive me,” Nines began as he stared passively at the other android from across the table. “But I’m afraid I must be brash.”

 

Gavin’s level glare didn’t rise from the collar of his uniform, but the intensity from it hardened. Solidified into something far uglier then what Nines was hoping for. It looked like Gavin hated him- _he didn’t,_ Nines reasoned to no one other then himself- Gavin couldn’t possibly hate him. 

 

His hand went to the vanilla folder sitting idly on the tabletop. Nines has never resented doing his job before, he’s never felt the need to hold such profound distaste towards a paper file, has never despised the contents inside of it so openly before. 

 

Being a deviant, he concluded, was always an ever-changing experience. It kept him on his toes. 

 

“This does not have to last long, Gavin, there is only ten more minutes to the work day.” He hoped the model picked up the hint he was dropping, the out he was giving him. If he did he sure didn’t show it, but could the RK really come to expect that? Expect for something to change all of a sudden?

 

He had simply hoped. _Falsely,_ might he add. It sent a tremor of unpleasant code throughout his systems. 

 

“Lieutenant Anderson and Connor are always the last to leave. When they make their departure, our talk will officially end. Anything afterwards will be held off record.” Not really, being an RK unit, it meant he was capable of keeping everything on record at all times. He was still hoping that the other was getting every hint he was leaving, and receiving it as intended. 

 

Nines was able to play back feed, audio, could share his experiences with any number of appliance that could have a screen attached or speaker of some kind. But he was choosing not to. An open choice, _free will_ that he was just now exercising. It left him feeling exhilarated. 

 

But Gavin looked indifferent, maybe his interest was peaked- if the shifty eyes meant anything- but not completely void. 

 

“This morning, there was another victim from yet another missing persons case found dead, dismantled and put on display publicly.” Nines ran through the general background, sliding the pictures into a perfect row in front of the GV’s cuffed hands. If he were honest, he felt entirely cold about clamping the things back on. But he had no other option. It was standard procedures and he needed to follow a few orders. 

 

Gavin didn’t comment. 

 

“The scene was similar to previous ones we’ve connected to the people who once held you.” That was suppose to invoke a reaction; usually worked on humans or most androids in this situation. Nines knew that as a solid fact. 

 

But Gavin was not like most androids. 

 

He didn’t flinch. 

 

“Everything matches up. Evidence of the numbers and sigil have even been branded onto the Traci model’s stomach plating and on the finger of a nameless AP700. Multiple victims were involved in the making of this one display, though the bodies have not yet been found.” Testing his luck, Nines plucked the photo restoration of what the poor android was suspected to look like before taking such trauma and slipped it into the GV’s hand.

 

His eyes lifted, like they always did whenever handed information. Nines had watched him do the same countless routine whenever Connor had attempted questioning, or when Anderson pushed, or how Chris occasionally pried and tricked. No reaction, he was met with the same blank slate. Gavin was prepared for those things, he had most likely constructed something of his own.

 

Nines decided to use a different line of questioning. Attempting to throw Gavin off course. “Was her smile nice?”

 

Gavin looked shaken; blinked quickly and peered up at the RK, LED spinning faster, faster, faster- grip tightening on the photo until it creased. 

 

 ** _[Gavin knows the victim._**  
**_-Breakthrough. ]_**

 

 _“I-…,”_ Panic. Gavin was _panicked._ It morphing into boiled rage in the next second. _“How the fuck would I know!”_

 

He was defensive. Yanking again at his cuffs, hunching into himself. As horrible as the sight was, Nines had to press on. 

 

“Is there a name you could give me? So we have something to say besides ‘Android’ in the official death report?”

 

 _“Stop phckin’-“_ A glitch. Nines hadn’t heard one as harsh leave the model’s mouth before. It made his right eye twitch, reminding him of Connor whenever he mentally received a comm. It was over in a flash. _“- talkin’ to me!”_

 

“Apologies.” He tried and failed to sound soothing. He hoped it wouldn’t have mattered if he would have succeeded in the task. Connor had tried before, and sweet talking never went anywhere with Gavin. “I seem to have made the wrong accusation.”

 

Another lie; Nines had never made a mistake with any theory or claim, it wasn’t in his wiring to. But he had to tread carefully with the model. He couldn’t push too far, and already he was nearing the end of line. He half wanted Gavin to take it, the other part of him wishing he wouldn’t. It was so strange to fight himself over a simple investigation- he didn’t like it. This must be how Connor felt during the revolution, meeting with Amanda while conspiring with Hank unknowingly, and reassuring humans with every action.

 

He hated being so torn. 

 

 _“Yeah.”_ Gavin muttered, bitter. _“You have.”_

 

His HUD bleared a simple flash of his built-in lie detector which he dismissed as quickly as it had appeared. He already knew. Nines didn’t want to have to stare into the issue he was already trying to navigate. Gavin was seething in his chair already, bouncing his leg that jingled the plush cat toy clipped to a loop on the jeans he wore. They were worn and held smudges of dirt on the knees and back.

 

Nines packed up the files and reached to undo the latch on the chains binding Gavin to the cold metal. Perhaps it was a foolish idea to release him when he was worked up, but the thought of leaving him bound didn’t bode well inside his mind. Maybe Gavin could take it as a form of apology, because he did genuinely dislike upsetting the android. Again, he found himself wishing he just had a social relations program that was as effective as his predecessor’s. But CyberLife seemed to want to curse him that way, creating him without one. It never failed to irk him. 

 

Gavin rose once his wrists were free and Nines’ hand had safely retracted and latched back onto the file. He didn’t move another inch otherwise. Staring down at the RK with as much venom as he could muster- perhaps, Gavin was trying to intimidate him. Establish some sort of power now that he was without restraints. 

 

It was cute, if anything. 

 

Nines tried not to think anything of it, truly he tried to keep himself in the present, but memories of Gavin’s minuscule smile and taunting remarks kept him calm. The poor GV, he couldn’t appear threatening to the RK no matter what he attempted but at least Nines could appreciate the effort. At least, he secretly added to himself, Nines could save the moment to replay later on whenever he was without a thing to do. 

 

“Door’s open,” He risked meeting the android’s eyes. Saw the fierce blaze set inside them before Gavin growled and looked elsewhere. Had he been unconsciously cold? Did _he_ appear intimidating? He hadn’t meant to, and hoped Gavin didn’t take it in such a way. 

 

Instead, he rose, as slowly as he could to not pose a larger threat. And approached the interrogation room’s door, he could hear Gavin’s heavy footsteps behind him, following along. Nines wanted to smile- progress. A small step forward. His hand touched the panel and the synthetic skin disappeared, his authorization was permitted and the door opened not a second later. They both walked past the threshold, but Nines enviably began to lead the way into the spacious area of the station.

 

First, Nines tightened up the messy sprawl of folders all over Chris’s and Anderson’s desk, laid the vanilla folder promptly to the center of Connor’s clear desk. The many small succulents that the other RK kept around his terminal were doing well, if not a bit crowded by it’s neighboring bonsai tree. Huh….

 

Connor wouldn’t miss a plant or two. Besides, it’d be better for them to have an environment where they weren’t holed up so much. 

 

Nines won’t admit to taking the small rounded cactus or the sudden disappearance of the panda plant. And if anybody were to ask as to why the two were at either side of his own terminal, well, that’d be a case for them to solve themselves. And not his problem. Gavin watched him moving from across the bullpen. He didn’t comment on anything, merely observed, before grunting and slinking into the break room. 

 

Nines dubbed it safe to assume that the GV liked the break room. It must be the most normal area out of the entire department, nothing in there screamed police quite as loud. Maybe Gavin liked to pretend he wasn’t being cooped inside a cell, or he possibly pictured himself somewhere else like a fancy cafe or a lobby of some kind. Nines could swear, if he were human, Gavin would most definitely be a coffee person. 

 

He didn’t want it to look like he was heavily monitoring the other android, even if that was exactly what he was doing. No, Nines wanted Gavin to be able to relax around one person- selfishly, he wanted it to be himself but if that wasn’t achieved that would be….acceptable. It would have to be. Tina was always another option to bring in, if all else couldn’t be obtained. 

 

______________________________________

 

Nines tried to give Gavin as much time to himself without any hovering. He gave the model an hour, then argued with himself to give up more time- the day had been stressful, more time wouldn’t be so bad. So he stretched the hour in to two, then added another forty-five just to be safe. 

 

When he entered the break room, Gavin was stretched across the couch. His heels crested the arm rest and he was holding up two mugs: one was shiny and black with the words printed in white “But First Coffee” while the other was white and held a small sun. Written across it was “Mornin’ Beautiful” in bright golden hues with a darker yellow to make it seem like the sunrise was actually illuminating the cup. Nines had seen Anderson with the first one before, and Captain Fowler with the second. 

 

As to why Gavin found them worth oggling was another question Nines couldn’t answer. So, he left it alone and went to the sink. Minutes ticked by, racking count as the two of them were silent throughout the time they spent. Then suddenly-

 

_“Natalie.”_

 

Nines stopped scrubbing a cup, glanced over his shoulder and found the GV with his hood up. It covered his eyes and majority of his expression- from the set of his jaw and the grim line of his mouth, he guessed it wasn’t a positive one. He decided not to say anything just yet. 

 

_“And she was the sweetest girl down there, her smile was….really nice to see.”_

 

Oh. 

 

Nines tried not to let the sudden giddy feeling radiating off of his programs affect him. He needed to remain in composure, unaffected, as if the information he had just learned meant nothing to him. As if Gavin finally opening up about something to him was just another normal thing that happened about a hundred times a day. 

 

“I see.” 

 

 _“She was a bright fucker, annoyingly optimistic.”_ Gavin turned his back to him, coddled up to the side of the sofa. Nines didn’t need his processors to inform him a protective defense protocol when he saw one. _“…..it was infectious, sometimes.”_

 

Nines waited for him to continue, but he didn’t. Gavin stopped talking entirely. Stay curled up on the couch cushions. 

 

He resumed his cleaning, trying not to be disappointed that it had all stopped. He needed to be content with how far he was able to get- which was more then most. And Nines had established a link of his own with the GV, something no one else had as unique as he now holds. And that-

 

 _That_ was enough.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Gavin: does literally anything  
> Nines: dId yOu SeE tHaT 
> 
>  
> 
> Gavin:  
> Nines: wOW, #blessed. 
> 
>  
> 
> In here, we only know soft boi Nines and no one else


	5. Epiphany

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh.” His predecessor breathed after a beat. “I see. You know, Hank once told me emotions screw things up from time to time. They can be hard to navigate by yourself. Do you have any coping mechanisms?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This entire semester is gonna be wack asf I can sense it
> 
>  
> 
> I hope no one was expecting smth fluffy this chapter ;0

“You seem troubled.”

 

Nines looked up from the terminal screen he had been staring at, his brows creasing together as he watched Connor perch himself up on his desk. Just like how he did to the lieutenant, it was highly unprofessional and it held no real value. But, he had stopped trying to understand how the RK800 worked a long time ago. He contributed it all to deviancy. A virus too unpredictable to pin down. 

 

“Perhaps,” Nines paused to assess. Was he really troubled? Frustrated, _maybe._ On edge, only partially. Confused and a bit overwhelmed…well it was new to him, but yes. He, supposed, he was troubled.”- just a bit out of my element.”

 

Opening up was new. And Connor beamed upon his words. He smiled, one that reached the very peak of his eyes which glittered with joy, the smile that followed after was pleasantly comforting. Nines wasn’t sure how Gavin resisted it, he barely could keep his stone-cold composure whenever he was met with the definition of persuasion. But Nines speculated, that very expression was the sole reason as to why Connor was dubbed The Negotiator. 

 

“Out of your element?” Connor saddled closer. “And what is creating your dilemma?

 

“I believe it is my own deviancy that is prohibiting me from using myself to my full capabilities.” Nines sucked the disappointment clean from his tone, made sure not a drop of his boiling restless energy spilled into the sentence. As far as anyone was concerned, he didn’t experience any feelings. 

 

“Oh.” His predecessor breathed after a beat. “I see. You know, Hank once told me emotions screw things up from time to time. They can be hard to navigate by yourself. Do you have any coping mechanisms?”

 

Nines wanted to say he didn’t need any, but that might be an illogical statement. He had emotions now. And as true as that saying was, they did make things messy. A good and healthy way to cope would be most efficient if he could not handle his own feelings. It was rudimentary to obtain at least one, Nines might have to look into different ones if anything he was doing currently didn’t lighten the cold weight inside his circuits. 

 

He glanced towards the panda succulent now stationed at his desk, then over at the bustling crowd of his coworkers around the coffee machine. He cleaned and aided in the plant life. Those seemed to be good start, and he enjoyed them immensely. Therefore, he could check that off the list- at least he was doing one thing right with his new free will. “Yes, I do.”

 

“I hope _theft_ isn’t one of them.” Taunting, that’s what he was picking up. Connor was merely joking with him, he let the tension roll off of his shoulders.

 

“I pray for any line of business should you be dismissed as an investigative detective.” Nines bit back, the fond rolling of the eyes another mannerism learned from the lieutenant who harbored the android like a son. 

 

“If I may ask a personal question. Why the sudden flux on your emotions, surely, you’ve been feeling them ever since Markus and I woke you up?”

 

Ah, there it was. The small head tilt, the lean in proximity. The concern wavering inside his predecessor’s vocal modulator designed to draw out confessions based off honeyed words. It was something Nines admired. So much power at the fingertips of someone who knew exactly how to use it, that was walking a dangerously thin line, and he pitied the poor fool who received such a hex. 

 

“I’m….unsure, on the reason.” Nines replied after a moment’s pause. 

 

“Certainly you have a theory of some sort?” 

 

He did. Though he didn’t like voicing it. 

 

He knew he had a fair…obsession, with the new GV. But he had chalked it down to simply desiring information where he has been denied. There was nothing wrong with that. He was an RK unit. He was built to get answers, he was naturally drawn to challenges of all variations, he wasn’t meant to fail. That’s why everything was so frustrating- he wasn’t functioning at his best. This wasn’t his peak performance. That was why Gavin plagued his every waking thoughts and how his voice carried on inside his head whenever he found himself in a moment’s silence. Because Nines was missing something and the case was not yet solved.

 

There was nothing more to it- he was sure. 

 

And yet, that answer was not satisfactory to some program constantly running, a program he didn’t have access to and couldn’t shut off. One that taunted him just as much as his original coding did upon his rebellion. 

 

“Hey,” There it was. Honeyed words dripping off the comb and quenching any mortal man’s dying wants. Except- it was falling onto Nines and instead of gratifying, it felt smothering. Pitying. He did not like it at all. It made something burn inside his sensors, an air of confusion lighting up his processors. He, really, didn’t like it. “It’s alright. You do not have to talk about anything you aren’t ready for.”

 

Connor rested his hand, tentatively, atop his own. When he looked up and saw those brown eyes melting sweetness into his being, he elected to look elsewhere and stand briskly. How warm and inviting the room felt whenever the security, the trust swirling inside his wires tugged at him to talk. To spill everything that ever caused him stress. His thoughts immediately spun to Gavin; how many looks had Nines witnessed him see exactly like that, how many fleeting touches all mindlessly tender, only to be used to coax something out, how undermining the entirety of it was. 

 

Nines knew Connor had meant well, but the realization didn’t sit well on his tongue. Maybe after all- forcing information out wasn’t the best of terms. He should not have overstepped a boundary so great. If Gavin received this day in and day out for weeks, knowing as soon as it was outed he’d be thrown aside again, paid no more mind and suddenly without anyone to care for is why he resented it so much. 

 

It made sense as to why Officer Chris never got anywhere. 

 

“Apologies Connor, I..-“ And really, the other RK seemed worried. Remorseful. It had not been his initial intention to purposely enact such a feeling, and Nines had never been entirely good on receiving. “I believe you have shed some clarity.”

 

“Have I?”

 

______________________________________

 

He looks at the evidence room’s displays- or rather, the remains of what was left of the poor victims. His eyes look over the most recent findings. Natalie, as Gavin had dubbed her, hung as put together she could possibly be. Which wasn’t as ‘put together’ as one might think. She more resembled Frankenstein’s monster then anything. 

 

His eyes then fall onto the other androids; a faceless, legless PL600 with a shaven head and scorched arms. An LM100 with no auditory or visual components, drained dry of any drop of thirium, and missing nearly every wire and circuit inside their chest cavity. They had attempted a repair only to fail, upon immediate reactivation- the poor thing self-destructed within seconds. A JB300 who appeared entirely normal, only to be disgusted at the gruesome mutilation seared into the inner workings of the platings and sensors, turned into some sort of broken machine. A few others lines up besides those very few, all broken, all dismantled. All shells or fragments of who they used to be. 

 

It was astounding to be able to have any victim alive at all- Gavin was a miracle. He could walk, talk, defend himself moderately, provide assistance whenever he felt gracious enough to do so. The only thing, seemed to be his LED. Gavin wasn’t breaking down, he was far from being broken- defective to a degree, perhaps, but not without minimal repairs that could surely fix him up. 

 

Has Gavin ever come close to such a fate? The thought had something churning low in the pit of his stomach. Did they threaten such things? That had a very likely chance, was physical disfigurement a common punishment? Is that the reason why Gavin had a scar resting on the bridge of his nose, because he failed to comply? Now that- _that_ had Nines seething. 

 

He gave a final look at Natalie, stepping closer. 

 

_Her smile was….really nice to see._

 

It echoed, bounced off the walls around him in the otherwise silent room. She stared back at him, unseeing and unblinking. Dead. Without the fingered hand sprouting from her forehead, she did look quite pretty. Nines tried to image a smile; soft, one that crinkled up at her eyes and poured happiness into every corner of the room. He pictured her with a soft sounding voice that seemed to compare to velvet and laughter that made him think of a never ending meadow full of blossoms to pick. Gavin would be standing beside her, a smile equally as stunning and delightful. She was not the sex bot used for filthy deeds, not degraded by dirty strangers and their callous touches. She was, instead, a simple girl with so much more life to give. So much more happiness to spread.

 

Icy nothingness stared back at him, ruining the ideal life he created for her inside a preconstruction. Whoever she was, was no more. 

 

Nines closed her eyes for her, a thought of him having to do the same to Gavin if the situation were different had him stumbling away. Suddenly stricken by a force so strong he thought Amanda had to be behind it. His chest felt tight and his body stilled where it leaned against the podium before the corpses of evidence. Thoroughly shaken. 

 

He did not cherish those ideas, he did not save those ones. They were cruel and unforgiving. The lifeless pools reflecting his own aching chassis, the splatter of blood staining everything he owned and painting high up on the walls around him. 

 

Natalie’s crime scene could have been Gavin’s. 

 

He could be closing Gavin’s eyes. 

 

Suddenly, he understood the red LEDs. The silence. The fighting and the bickering. He could comprehend it all- felt it tying together like a bow atop of a present. If that was the route Gavin was choosing- 

 

_Choosing._ Did Gavin get to have a choice? Or was it engraved inside bits and pieces of coding he still blindly followed? Was he just a machine protecting his master’s word, or was he more?

 

______________________________________

 

“Are you staring just to stare- or…do you have some idea inside that noggin’ of your’s?”

 

When he didn’t answer, the officer whistled and kicked her feet back on a level square of the wall beside her. Nines ignored her, even when she commented again. He felt something coiling hot and tight around him- it felt too tight to function. To continue unbothered. Because he was bothered, completely and entirely distracted by too many ideas. The mission seemed far from the top of his list now. 

 

He detested that. He needed to remain on target, but how, and why was he so behind?

 

“I want to question him.”

 

Tina straightened up then. Feet firmly planted on the ground as her gaze pierced through the mirror and landed soft on Gavin’s shoulders before flickering back to him, judgmental. He supposes, halfheartedly, he does deserve some of that based on his initial commentary on her own beginning inquiries. 

 

But then, she sighed. Heavy and unrepressed, her hand going to her cap to ease it off her head and scratching behind her ear. He watched her flatten any stray hairs down with one hand, careful in it’s trek before righting the cap. “Don’t be too hard on ‘em, ‘kay?”

 

Nines would never, not intentionally or with any malicious goal in mind. “I had no intention to do so.”

 

“Don’t try too hard either, I think Gav gets annoyed by that.” She says with a grin. Tina pats him on the arm for good merit before letting him go. 

 

Nines walks, graceful despite the pounding inside his own ears from the rushing thirium, and opens the door. It was clear that Gavin was not expecting him, the disappointment was evident on his face and this time Nines did not let it deter him. Though, in comparison, he received a better greeting then the Lieutenant or Connor. If Gavin’s usual sharp stare was anything at the moment, it was dull, and his brow was raised. He was curious. 

 

Nines sits down, back perfectly straight and arms folded neatly into his lap. Something inside him hums with the weight of his own thoughts. Gavin meets his eye, defensive but not entirely unkind. 

 

He isn’t scrunched up, his foot tapping idly under the table as he waits in the baited silence. The same quiet that the RK gives him to get used to his presence and stature. The same silence that Gavin fled to for solace and shelter amongst abuse and endless questioning. The silence that they had found him in, tied and gagged, chained and glitching and so very stressed. 

 

“Gavin, what is your original programing?”

 

The air was thick with tension as the model settled back into his chair, reclining. A new movement. His eyes peppered down onto his wrists that no longer pulled and yanked at the metal around them but instead, laid lax inside the cuffs. His gaze wasn’t heavy and there was no glare. He looked to be pondering, or maybe just buying time. 

 

Or, wasting it. 

 

Maybe he just wasn’t asking the right question. “Gavin.”

 

He was met with another gruff grunt, Gavin was listening. 

 

“What is your new assigned function?” Gavin has too many skills to only be used for his initial purpose, he has filled too many spots to be able to only serve a single command. There was so much more to Gavin then met the eye. There was so much more to know, and Nines was only scratching above the surface. 

 

Too many victims lined the evidence room’s walls, all having their own programming to follow one set of guidelines that would inedibly be used until their deactivation while Gavin was graced with multiple sets and a large skill of adapting. 

 

The GV leaned his head forward, drawing his shoulders up in to himself and working the material of his jacket in between his fingers. Nines noticed their dexterity, stored it for later if the information ever became more pressing or relevant. Gavin puffed up, the hood of his coat brushing over his head and setting a shadow past his eyes. He went lax against his chair again, sitting down and back on to it like it was the most comfortable thing in the world. 

 

And finally, answering in a voice that was the clearest the RK’s ever heard him before. He gave an answer. One Nines didn’t really want to hear. “Currently, to die."

 

“To _die.”_ Nines let the words stray from his mouth. They almost didn’t seem to be true with the amount of skepticism trapped inside his own tone. But it wasn’t Gavin he didn’t believe, no, it was the fact that he had said it so simply. Like it was fairly normal, almost as if talking about the revolution or Markus was merely yesterday’s news. “Why aren’t you already dead?”

 

Gavin didn’t answer him then, he bathed in the echo of Nines’ own voice, let it bounce around and off the walls. He no longer seemed interested in indulging the RK anymore. And was that all it really was, _indulgence?_

 

“They had to have been planning to kill you.” One way or another, whether it be gruesome and public, or clean and private, Nines had no idea. This time around, he didn’t need a reaction to be told that he was right. Gavin was hiding behind his hood well, shielding himself under a thin layer of fabric. 

 

Gavin answered him once more. “There’s always one left.” 

 

Nines wanted to know what he meant by that, left to what exactly? To rot, to decay slowly, to shut down after decades worth of disablement? Or was it one left to play with once the first kidnapped were all gone, one to entertain them while they hunt for their next prey, one to keep them satisfied and happy, to be a machine meant to please?

 

“Why is that?” He found himself asking instead. 

 

“To watch."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> for everything that's happening in this chapter; fluff is low-key on the way don't worry 
> 
>  
> 
> so, now that Gavin finally gave information for fuckin once
> 
>  
> 
> what we all thinkin?? 
> 
>  
> 
> "Thoughts?"


	6. Seemingly Chilly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Why do you keep that?” Gavin is asking, his voice a small thing but not without a grace to it. Nines likes the sound of his voice, it’s not glitchy and scratchy anymore. It sounds soothing when it’s quiet like this. It’s a luxury. 
> 
>  
> 
> “My uniform?” He cocks his head to the side, Tina told him it was cute, Connor agreed- and Hank nodded his own confirmation. How so, was beyond him. But he was attempting to be friendly. He hopes it brings merit.

It’s risky to stay in that state, Nines can see how the tremors slink up the entirety of Gavin’s body as he’s escorted to his cell. He looks absolutely disgusted, angry even, as Chris waits for him to walk faster. The limp that the GV walks with is only made more prominent as his steps turn heavy and even more uncoordinated. Nines frowns from his desk at the sight. 

 

Getting kidnapped, going through a traumatic and hostile environment, constant interrogation and eyes all on him- self repairs, underlying stress and mistrust. It would drain anyone’s battery- and surely, Gavin wasn’t allowed such niceties during his tormented stay with the circle. But he wouldn’t allow himself rest, he didn’t allow anyone to get close enough to power him down and refused every offer of a recharge. 

 

Nines chalked it all up to being afraid, that _had_ to be it. He wasn’t sure as to what other options could warrant such blatant avoidance. 

 

He needs to do something, but there isn’t anything in his power that wouldn’t call for suspension from his fellow officers. He cannot help Gavin if he is pulled off the case, then he wouldn’t be allowed to have a thing to do with the model. So the most he can do is watch, expression a bit pinched if not entirely stoic, as the android blunders along. 

 

Officer Chen walks to his desk, a report in her hands. Nines gives her his attention as she briefs him on another call in, a suspected crime scene that is believed to hold a connection to the theory he purposed earlier. How fitting, he finds. Just as he’s asked Gavin and received new data to mull over. Data he has yet to make proper sense of. He nods, processing the call inside his mind as she goes over different assumptions about the case. 

 

“What do you think, Nines?” Tina has her arms crossed, a sullen look to her. The air around her speaks of how tired she is. Neither one of them had known what to do when the GV spilled those eight simple words. Nines hadn’t a clue as to what else to ask, and Gavin refused to utter another word on anything else. 

 

Nines had left, because Tina entered the room and looked so conflicted it made him feel so strange about it. Like he had a responsibility to make it all better even though he had his own twisted emotions swelling inside his throat. He reviewed the photos, the bodies, the evidence afterwards, and checked back in on the two. The room was silent, and Tina was doing everything she could to make Gavin comfortable, to make it better, but nothing seemed to be working and Gavin had started to get jittery. They left him then, while Anderson and Connor watched through the mirror and tried their own methods. But Gavin was closed off and hostile; he sat alone for majority of that time. 

 

“I think a number of things are plausible.” He saw Chris returning to his desk, shifted his gaze before bringing it back in time to not be noticed by either human. Gavin lingered at the entrance of his cell. 

 

“But which is more likely?”

 

“That is hard to determine,” He risked another glance and met Gavin’s eyes. The GV was already staring at him, had been ever since Chris’s back had turned, and he seemed to will Nines closer with his eyes. “But perhaps self-destruction is not out of the question.”

 

Maybe he was just seeing what he wanted to see. Tina groaned, a long and drawn out one and rocked back onto her heels. She seemed to be exhausting a lot of her own ideas, and her body as well. Perhaps if there was anything he could do, it was lighten the burden. It wasn’t his forte, per say, but it was better then idly sitting by while she worked herself into a frenzy. 

 

“If Gavin’s current mission objective is to… _deactivate_ in any means he can, to self-destruct is highly likely. But he seems in no rush to do so,” As he spoke he couldn’t help but size up the GV from a far. Gavin still didn’t look away, if anything, he tilted his head up. Was that… _did that mean anything?_

 

“So, he’s deviant, is what you’re saying.” 

 

“If he was deviant, he’d be telling us more details.” Ah, maybe that came out too harsh. The android now stared at his own shoes rather then Nines’s eyes. “Entertaining the idea that he will not can stem from the possible factor that he _cannot.”_

 

Nines quickly searched for another indicator, but Gavin just kicked his feet, seemingly occupied with nothing but the floor. 

 

“Alright, so something’s keeping the truth from coming out.” Tina’s lip pursed, Nines could again see the dark simmer in Gavin’s eyes when they once more lifted. 

 

“Indeed, the earlier theory that the GV is being denied from programming is-,” Nines saw the eye roll out of his peripheral. Interesting. “-not a plausible outcome. We should discard it.”

 

“And how do you figure that?” Relief, that is what Nines heard buried under layers of unbridled tiredness. Something soft countered the dark flare from behind the clear cell wall. Interesting, the entire exchange was so unlikely- so…off, but not in a bad sense. It was just so new and different that Nines hoped he was navigating it right. 

 

“If his programming was controlling his actions, he would be dead by now.” Now he was starting to get it. Gavin was not a machine, but the cover of one was a highlight in throwing anyone off if they became _too_ interested. The police would give up if they truly believed that nothing would come from a loyal android, would stop pestering at something that was steadfast and silent the entire time, something that took orders and carried them out. They wouldn’t be able to get anything from property. But Gavin, he was not property. And this he seemed to know. 

 

“Okay, right, but what does that leave us with? What’s the motive for not saying anything?”

 

Nines pondered it, thoughts swirling inside his processor as he struggled to come up with an answer. He looked to his succulent for answers, ones he knew he wouldn’t find there but the gesture was relaxing enough. Connor really didn’t mind his plant’s disappearance if their earlier encounter was anything to go by, in fact- _Connor._ What had he said, about deviancy?

 

“Emotions.” Nines echoes, a bit bewildered at the thought. The perplexity of something so _simple_ and _subtle_ that it blinded them all- something so _easy_ almost slipped right past them. 

 

He can’t gauge anything from the expression he sees fall upon the model, and Gavin hobbles as he goes to sit down on the bench provided by the cell. Nines can’t see him anymore, but he has a feeling he’s right. A guttural instinct kicking him in his stomach plating and lighting to life along his systems. He had to be right. 

 

______________________________________

 

Tina offered to stay, which Nines knew was more for the department’s sake rather then his or her own- or so he thought. She was tired, clearly, the all nighter they both sprung the other day was still hanging heavy over her head. The long hours spent staring at computer screens, digging up information, trying different keywords to break the string of numbers etched onto every victim’s corpse. He wondered if Gavin had one. Tattooed somewhere deep into his chassis, hidden by layers of dirtied clothes and away from revealing eyes. Maybe the numbers only appeared on the dead ones rather then every victim taken. 

 

The officer had her own questions, that much was clear, and they stemmed more towards the group and Gavin’s opinion rather then just on the GV. Nines could understand that, humans got distracted by sentiment. They couldn’t always appreciate the wonders right before them, but Tina did a decent job at knowing how lucky they both were. 

 

“Please, go home and get some rest.” Nines tried to convince her, but Tina could be rather stubborn once her mind was made up. 

 

“You go home Nines, you’ve been staying here every night since we started working this case! It’s my turn to stay, you should go back to your house.” 

 

“I stay because I want to, it is not a need to go home, unlike it is for you.” The counter was easy to make, and he found satisfaction in the way Tina puffed up and crossed her arms, jetting her hip out. The RK only threw her jacket around her shoulders, more pushing her out of the bullpen and towards the door. 

 

“Nines, what the fuck!” She attempted to swat his hands away when he pulled the scarf around her neck, a futile gesture as he evaded the hits. 

 

“You’re human, you require optimally eight hours of sleep every night for peak performance and you’re running very low on that requirement, as of late. It is in your best interests to retire for the night and return in the morning.” He coaxes her to the steps of the department, leaving the doors open by a small peak. “I can take care of everything here.”

 

“But Gavin-“

 

“Gavin is in safe hands, I promise.” Maybe it’s the way he said it, that convinced her. The soft, fondness that creeped warm into his voice as he uttered the words. He hadn’t meant to, and it was as surprising to him as it was to her. Tina held his gaze and her eyes rounded with niceties that made no clear sense or had any reason to be shining at him. 

 

“Left side of my desk, bottom drawer.”

 

“Pardon?” 

 

“Good night, Nines.” 

 

He watched her, dumbfounded, as she gave him a lopsided grin and walked off towards the parking lot to clamber into her car. The weather was dropping as the snowed began to pile on the icy banks of the city’s streets so he was positive the officer was thankful for his insistence on returning to her home. It would be much warmer there, but he was still a bit lost on why she had told him to get something out of her desk if she was only to leave. It must be for him. Though his puzzlement didn’t end- he didn’t need anything. So what was her point?

 

Deciding to preserve the station’s heating, he closed the door and rounded the corner to waltz back into the bullpen. It was always a bit eerie to see the place once so busying with people and nosy, completely silent and calm. Like no one had ever been there in the first place, he could almost mistake it all and say the world had no more evils inside of it. No need for anymore long nights and hard cases, no troubles laying dormant and ready to spring- it was all just….peaceful. And quiet. 

 

Just how he liked it. 

 

Crossing the station, he appeared at the officer’s desk. Nines favored Tina because her desk was the right amount of organized and messy. Contradictions, he knows, but it’s just a human thing; Pictures lined the edges of her desk, all different and all wonderfully ridiculous. She stares at them during hard days and long nights, it provides security to her and a sense of tranquility that she cannot normally find here. There’s a cup with pens and pencils, some fuzzy and colorful, others practical and bland. Countless erasers and pens litter her desk top- one by the computer, another by the third picture of her family to the left, one smack in the middle atop some reports and forms, a few scattered randomly within arms reach. He never bothered to pick them up, they all appeared back in there places the next morning and it improved Tina’s productivity, so he let them be. 

 

Sticky notes were also a big favorite of her’s. Yellow ones for reminders, those were mostly for her private life involving her home and/or partner, blue ones for ideas still needing to be fleshed out about criminals or any other issue that became a priority. Pink ones were for things she wanted to get or give, gift ideas and lines of conversation she liked to remember, “happies” she called them. Something to use to make other people smile or jokes to tell to impress her coworkers. There were even green ones, he wasn’t exactly sure what those ones were for, but they were relatively knew and there was considerably less on her desk space then the other colors. Then there came the knickknacks, just any and everything small enough to sit on a person’s desk was there. Nines, secretly, found the red and golden elephant to be his favorite. It just….made him feel nice. 

 

Just maybe, he should pursue a purchase. Just once. 

 

Ah, he was getting distracted. This wasn’t the right time to be condoning such thoughts when he had other pressing matters that needed his attention. Briefly he wondered how Connor got anything done with such untamable thoughts, but he pushed past the distractors while he pulled the drawer opened. 

 

A blanket. With a note laying on top. A pink one. 

 

_‘Fuckin’ A it gets cold. Someone (not me) might need it’_ Nines checked the temperature. Forty-nine with a wind speed of 7mph. 

 

Under it laid a green one.

 

_‘Not much but maybe he’ll appreciate it. Idk, but the thought counts, right?’_

 

Nines pondered what that meant, who it was meant for. Him? Perhaps, but there was plenty of other males inside the department. The green sticky note must be for transactions or possibly regarding a certain someone. A love interest? Officer Chen was, as she put it, a raging bisexual. 

 

He took the blanket into his hands carefully; it was worn and soft. Must be a very sentimental piece of home decor, judging by the faded colors and the type of stitching, it was handcrafted. How very rare- most things were factory or android made but from the intricate knots and stitch work, it was blatantly obvious it was created by human hands. But he couldn’t get cold, didn’t feel any biting chill from a drop in temperature- so, why was he holding a blanket? And why did Tina feel the need to let him borrow it?

 

Distractions. He can ask her later. 

 

Folding the cloth over his arm, the RK stalked over to the cells. He felt pity stirring inside his pump when he saw that Gavin had not been waiting for him but laid curled on the bench, foot twitching and jerky as the need for stasis steadily rose. Suddenly, the blanket made much more sense. 

 

Nines entered the small space, heels clicking against the smooth tile as he stood over the other model. Gavin’s legs shifted as he turned over, pushing himself haphazardly further up the wall and providing a little room to the very end of the bench. He looked at the fabric currently strung over the RK’s arm and if he weren’t so tired, Nines knew the suspicious gaze would be far more skeptic. 

 

Nines can feel his programming taking over the longer that sympathy burns inside his chest. And this time, he welcomes it for lack of anything else to say. “Thank you for your cooperation.”

 

“Don’t thank me.”

 

He kneels, because he knows it is visually relaxing and makes him seem far more approachable then his lack-of-expression. Nines does not wrap the blanket around Gavin, thinks that might be an invasion of personal space, and instead lets it occupy and hang on his slender fingers in offer. “You should reboot or recalibrate your systems.”

 

“Don’t wanna.”

 

Nines knows he asks why too much, and Gavin gets asked enough already. He goes for a different reply. “I know.”

 

He keeps his hand still, lets his knees rest on the cold tile. The cell is chillier then the rest of the department, the heaters here aren’t faulty but it’s the choice of build and structure that made it so. The options of flooring and walls and ceilings all contribute to the drop in the air- and Nines suddenly feels bad about the arrangements that Gavin has. It is not welcoming here. It is not comfortable. It was never meant to ever be. 

 

Gavin’s hand shakes as it raises, pauses just about half way to his hand, surges forward incredibly jerky and his fingers curl around all at different seconds rather then in sync. His sensors are just simply overwhelmed and if Gavin is embarrassed, Nines feels he shouldn’t be. It was not his fault. 

 

Slowly, with so much unneeded caution, does the GV pull at the blanket until it slips from Nines’s open hand. It pools in his lap and Nines is satisfied when it’s maneuvered around his shoulders and now draped around the smaller android. He’s positive he is grinning; small and proud when a software instability jets up from the corner of his UI. And Gavin watches, trembling in his stubborn will, but not pushing him away. 

 

Nines enjoys it, finding himself quite jovial whereas he shouldn’t be, and tries not to ruin the moment. 

 

“Why do you keep that?” Gavin is asking, his voice a small thing but not without a grace to it. Nines likes the sound of his voice, it’s not glitchy and scratchy anymore. It sounds soothing when it’s quiet like this. It’s a luxury. 

 

“My uniform?” He cocks his head to the side, Tina told him it was cute, Connor agreed- and Hank nodded his own confirmation. How so, was beyond him. But he was attempting to be friendly. He hopes it brings merit. 

 

“Yeah, the jacket.” Gavin points, is quick to lower his hand as his fingers twitch, ruining the gesture he was trying to make. 

 

“To tell you the entire truth,” and he hooks a finger around the lapel of his jacket. Tugging it into place where it once opened up. “I, myself, am not certain.”

 

“Why the collar?”

 

“Elegance.” 

 

_“Liar.”_ Gavin spits, no real venom in his tone. Taunting.

 

“I am serious.” And maybe Gavin’s smug, with the little up-turn of his lips quirking just so to be overlooked if not being looked for.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm updating this before running off to school so my editing might be slacking juuuuuust a bit!!
> 
>  
> 
> anyway, enjoy!!!


	7. Please don't run, not from me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I’ll go into stasis, or whatever, just-,” He’s…pensive. That much Nines can make out from his frazzled mind. Tentative. “…be here?”
> 
>  
> 
> “Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wowza,,,, just a bit of a warning to those who are sensitive!! 
> 
> Emotions are tossed a lot in this chapter- nothing excessive or like,,,,triggering really?? but you can never be too safe!!

Gavin hadn’t asked him to go. So Nines stayed. 

 

He stayed, crouched and kneeling and staring up at the other android, finding he rather liked the view from here. Because eventually, during the exchange of questions, Gavin leaned forward in interest. There was no crease between his brows and he had long stopped trying to search for reasons to not trust the RK. He was letting everything be, wasn’t searching for a reason to be angry or seek an out. He was just…talking. And looking. And now, Nines has come to understand, Gavin is as curious as he is- about many, many things. 

 

“Why don’t you have a partner? Tina has one.” 

 

“Officer Lewis, yes, and I’m simply awaiting assignment.” He sensed another question sprouting inside Gavin’s mind- and what a sharp thing his brain was. How quick it could be and fast it could process. “Being an advanced model, needing a partner isn’t strictly required for me, but it is recommended. I can do my work all on my own and never fall behind.”

 

“So-,” There’s a twinkle inside his eyes. The flecks of green more visible when Nines looks _up_ into them rather then down at them. He now knows that’s a tale of the GV’s- when he is playful and unhindered by his own anxieties. “-you’re a one man band.”

 

Gavin looks pleased with himself, spotting the turning LED switch to yellow as the RK looks up what that exactly entitles in a humorous setting before it cools to blue. He likes to scramble Nines, mess with him, in more human terms. Not badly or excessively- but there is immense amusement. Nines can’t even be mad. 

 

“That I am.” 

 

The blanket makes the GV’s shaking much more apparent, and it seems that it's getting harder to ignore the stronger it pulsates throughout Gavin’s programs. Nines really wishes he’d just allow himself to reboot, or get repaired. He needs it but Nines will not push where it is unwanted. Instead, he just gazes in silent concern. It makes Gavin look away from him, which is disappointing, but much better then him being physically relocated. 

 

“No one…,” Nines perks up. Straightens his posture when Gavin bites at his lips- a human trait he now adds to his list- and his eyes sweep around the opened cell and into the station. “..no one’s _here_ …right?”

 

“That is correct.” Nines is curious. 

 

“Lieutenant dickwad and his two-faced puppy left, right?” Nines dislikes those names, though he cannot reprimand Gavin for calling them that. He had his reasons, and Nines just had to work on getting his ideals and perspectives to change. 

 

“They left the precinct approximately two hours and twenty-one minutes ago.” 

 

“Cool, cool.” 

 

Then there’s silence. 

 

Gavin’s own LED would be yellow, Nines is sure of it, if it wasn’t always stuck on red. It’s circling, spinning, as Gavin cycles through a thought process that Nines can never truly breakdown- it baffles him, still. There isn’t any easy indicators this time and he finds himself waiting. Baited and on a string, as Gavin finished running through whatever it is that’s so demanding. 

 

“Scramble up here, will ya?” He pats his side, where there was space enough for Nines to be seated on. “You shouldn’t-...uh, you don’t gotta stay on the floor, dumbass.”

 

“I am fine here.” He’s quick to reassure, hands calm as they splay over his own legs tucked underneath himself. He doesn’t get cramps or pains like a human would- he does not understand the problem about him obtaining the area when it makes Gavin feel uncomfortable when he is towered over. 

 

“C’mon,” Is all Gavin offers. Pats, invitingly, to his side. 

 

And Nines tries not to move too quickly, and he dismisses the many anomaly messages that pop up inside his HUD, and most definitely does he control his composure and school himself to be professional. He does not want to mess this up. The sudden nervous tick and pounding inside his own ears will have to be looked into later, right now all his processors are forced to focus on remaining graceful as he rises up from the ground and takes his new seat on the bench. 

 

The area is cold, he notices almost immediately, and the notion makes that same constricting feeling clamber as loud as Anderson’s frantic declaration of ‘Connor! That’s disgusting!’ upon evidence at a scene. But it doesn’t last long. He doesn’t get to dwell long on the emotion because he is pulled away from it. 

 

Gavin leans onto his shoulder, stiff and perturbed, at first. He doesn’t look at Nines, refuses to in any sense of the word, practically pretends he is not there when he very much so is. And Nines-

 

He feels himself stall, his programs themselves fail to compute with whatever they were previously doing, he received cool down messages and error alerts but he finds that he cannot read them. They’re garbled, along with his thoughts that never start but also never seem to quite finish, and he is lost inside this never ending bout that he has no clue what to label. This must be a virus, a very strong one at that if it broke past all of his firewalls, and it is most important that he run a diagnostic and find out what- _exactly_ \- he was dealing with. 

 

But then, Gavin is speaking again. And he sounds so beautifully vulnerable that Nines forgets he even ever had the thought of doing anything else rather than listening to him. 

 

"I’ll go into stasis, or whatever, just-,” He’s…pensive. That much Nines can make out from his frazzled mind. Tentative. “…be here?”

 

“Of course.” 

 

Gavin’s trust isn’t massive, and Nines knows he does not have much of it- but he is delighted, nonetheless, whenever the tense body against him suddenly turns lax. The shaking seizes and the trembling is only a distant memory. 

 

Perhaps, Nines has to conclude, that the thought really did count in the best possible way. 

 

______________________________________

 

It took hours. 

 

Which, wasn’t uncommon. No, that was by far the optimal timeframe regarding these things, that was not the issue. 

 

The issue was, and Nines tried not to act out of impulsive thought, that Gavin’s forearm was currently nestled on his lap. Entirely exposed. The white of his chassis had a distinct luster to it, and a few intricate dents along with minor scratches that could be chipped or buffed out. The manual labor portion of his list didn’t need to be confirmed, and yet, Nines found himself linking up different scuffs to various activities. 

 

The largest dent was right along the wrist of the GV’s- blunt trauma, pinpointing a proper cause was difficult because it seemed to fall under many. A combination, perhaps, of methods of restraint if not for punishment. Slender scratches ran jagged and messy on the knuckles; indication of many nasty brawls. The synth-skin would definitely cover that up, though it would’ve been imperative to know beforehand, considering the near fight that had almost happened mere days ago. 

 

Nines could map out the indentions all night, but he didn’t have that luxury. 

 

His eyes stayed trained on the white that no longer shined, the soft pulsing blue glow of thirium that steadily pumped throughout Gavin’s systems. The GV200 line was built a bit thicker in material, it showed, he wanted to think but the thought just wouldn’t stick. 

 

An interface. 

 

Is that what Gavin wanted? That’s what Nines wanted. 

 

He could get all the answers he ever pondered, he could search for every little thing that plagued the entire department, he could protect Gavin and bury this entire ordeal far, far behind him. Singlehandedly, he could eradicate every tiresome worry Tina carried on her shoulders, take the pressure off of her back from Fowler and the public. Lieutenant Anderson would stop worrying over them, Connor would be able to continue on and not have to check in on him so much. All he really was required to do was touch. All he had to do, was take hold of Gavin’s hand and travel past the codes and programs, bypass some firewall if he had to go that far. Everything would be fine, all the problems of the present could be vague memories of the past. It was tempting. 

 

So very tempting. 

 

Nines glanced at Gavin, the most peaceful he’s ever seen the GV. He looked soft- _so delicate_ \- and open. Gavin deserved that, deserved to rest, and he was entitled to having a future full of good things. And maybe, if he was allowed, Nines could be one of those good things- if Gavin even regarded him as such. 

 

It seemed like a very logical idea, the reasoning was solid to the RK. He was sure it was fine. 

 

Nines let his hand slip down and curl over those dexterous digits, he knew Gavin had no way of actually responding to the touch but he found himself wishing for it all the same. Yet, he was shocked to find that Gavin’s fingers gripped his own. Every digit moved in a fluid motion, all together and practiced, precise, like he’d done this a dozen times over. 

 

_**[Alert; Direct Connection]** _

 

Nines gaped. 

 

**_[Do You Wish To Accept Interface?]_ **

**_> Yes._ **   
**_-No._ **

 

He felt himself breathe out in a quick outburst to right his programs. What did Chris say? Now or Never?

 

He hit ‘Yes.’

 

______________________________________

 

_The world is dark, there isn’t a shred of light anywhere, and his optical units cannot focus. Or rather, they’re covered. A worse and vile option, they’re damaged. He hears thumps, something beating against something solid. Footsteps walking to and fro, angry shouting muffled by layers and layers of wood and walls, they sound above him- no, beside him. Or was it all around him? That couldn’t be right-_

 

_The cold rams into his being. Freezing his circuits and dicing his processors. Nines is unsure with how to proceed, only, this is not his body. This is not his model, not his unit, not his feelings or memory. Nines is not in control here._

 

_It’s cold._

 

_So cold he cannot think._

 

_Fear forbids for him to think, wills him to remain as he is. It’s so strong that Nines knows any movement merely speculated is invalid, tiny strings dance along his programming to further cement that he is not to move. An inch at that. Gavin’s body longs to shiver or start up heating protocols, but he shuts those subroutines down._

 

_Something pangs him, a certain type of wrongness that makes him focus solely on it, and the biting chill. It seems to seep deeper into his wires along with the sparking feeling of hurt and pain. He hates it, he wants to grunt but not a sound leaves his lips. A thought, one that isn’t his own, flickers past his mind. One quiet in it’s origins, as small as the will to move, but as loud and powerful as the need for warmth. It…scrambles him. Drives him. Makes him so lost and confused, but never has he found such a motivator._

 

_‘Green, Yellow, or Red?’_

 

_He waits, Nines knows to wait because Gavin has always waited. He is pressed against something that isn’t quite as freezing as the ground. Gavin knows to wait, and that’s all that replays inside his mind. Wait. But for what? His vision has been taken as his fingers twitch to settle his whirling components. Nines is apprehensive. But that isn’t an emotion that belongs to him, it is merely borrowed, from the GV as he stays deathly still._

 

_‘Yellow-Red.’_

 

_Relief courses through him, flooding every circuit and sensor he has inside him. It’s blinding, but there is nothing for him to be blinded from. Nothing but the darkness wrapping him up like a bow. The voice that cuts through his mind is slicing, hot like a knife and unforgiving like a meat clever. It’s damaging but Nines knows there’s nothing quite as sweet as it’s fleeting touch when it plays across his mind._

 

_He liked it- Nines isn’t sure why, but he liked it. Gavin liked it, this voice, this body._

 

_Against his fear, against his stiff limbs, he shifts closer._

 

_‘Taken, Part, or Used?’_

 

_It’s like a broken code that Nines has memorized, yet it’s such a foreign thing. He’s unnerved by it, knows exactly what those words mean but if he were to ever convey them aloud- he’d be lost. The RK understands that talking is not allowed, and telepathic communications is strictly against the rules, it doesn’t please the humans. It makes them angry, anxious, and hostile. He isn’t to try and talk by any means, in any way. But he, Gavin really, for-gos those commands._

 

_Those ideals don’t belong to him either, it’s something installed by experience, experiences he does not have._

 

_Gavin can call it his own because it is entirely his._

 

_‘Used. You?’_

 

_There’s disgust mulling inside every corner Nines can feel, against the wrongness tugging within him, swirling to the surface but held back by a chain and gag. He wants to squirm, yell, fight, and disrupt._

 

_He does nothing- or, Gavin does nothing._

 

_‘Yellow. Part.’_

 

_A thump is overheard. The voices stop. Gavin is petrified, alerts and errors overflow the dark that takes his sight. He does not know what to do and is suspecting the worst he can. Preparing for things he knows is to come if he is caught, which he very much so knows, he might be._

 

_‘You’re okay.’_

 

_Nines finds himself breathing and it felt like the first time he’s ever been told something so meaningful. There’s weight to this sentence. This one, small, short bit of social output. He clings to it like a lifeline, twists it around his heart, lets it envelope him completely and drape across every wire he owns. The panging and throbbing seem to simmer down at the dialogue too, odd, but welcomed._

 

_‘You are too, Natalie.’_

 

_Feelings._

 

_That’s what they are; coursing through his systems and tuning into his programing. A hand is holding onto his own- Gavin’s own- and squeezing it tight. Movement is against what they were suppose to do, but Gavin likes this rebellion. He curls his own hand around her’s, scoots just a bit closer, and just shares. His thoughts, what he sees, his aspirations, and more, so much more. And in return, it is given to him back._

 

_An undying hope. A sweetness too pure to be labeled and bottled by the moment. Heat and grace where it was so foreign earlier. He’s struggling, something Nines doesn’t like to identify, because-_

 

It’s shut off. 

 

Nines feels frustrations bubble up inside of his mind, why had it stopped? He had gotten so close. Just another minute. Just one-

 

A hand tightens around his own. 

 

Gavin. 

 

Oh, _Gavin._

 

As Nines turns, he can feel something jerk to life beside him, shoving him with all the gusto in the world. Something fighting to get him far, far away in record time and succeeding in doing just that. Because Nines allows himself to be pushed and accepts the ground as it collides into his shoulders and back. And he does not push up from the chilling tiled floor because he feels as if he is not meant to. 

 

Whether that be the remains of his interface, or his own programming screaming at him of his low probability. 

 

“What the _fuck_ is wrong with you!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> betcha didn't see that one coming didja???
> 
>  
> 
> reGARDLESS!!! 
> 
>  
> 
> Break this down as you will, things are gonna be getting spicy in this chilis tonight after this chapter ;)
> 
>  
> 
> also, interpret that, as you will!


	8. Say it like a curse, it just might be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Fuck you!” He hollered, snarled it out past his own clenched teeth and pressed his hands into a drawer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if school and their demands for lab reports and essays and tESTS don't kill me first
> 
> assume my lack of REST //side eyes// did it first

He tightens his fist, scowling, seething in his anger, staring down the very over-loved piece of hardware before him with the fury of the entire world inside his being. He no longer shook from clogged subroutines or crowded databanks but from his own rage. He watched the other, glaring from the bridge of his nose and rising from the bench. Gavin had pushed Nines and so far, the other hadn’t tried anything against him. 

 

The hope Gavin had felt swelling inside his chest had been a cruel joke, dissipating the moment he opened his eyes to find Nines there and not Natalie. Granted, he should’ve known. Natalie was dead. But he missed rousing from his stasis to see her there, missed the gentle squeeze of her hand against his, the endless hope for freedom and a better life. He missed _her._

 

He had gotten so used to feeling, the connection deep inside his unconscious body, that he didn’t stop and question the random interface. Didn’t think twice as another’s being linked up with his own and lightly pried- Gavin gave. 

 

He was only half mortified when he noticed the dark brown hair and icy blue eyes that saw right through him, staring unblinking, into his own. For a moment Gavin thought that Nines knew it all; knew everything he didn’t want him to, could see right through his dirty conscious. 

 

He felt guilt and shame first, terror at the implication of what his actions would reward him with, but then frustration and a deep unbridled rage. It wasn’t fair. He was tricked, had been from the very beginning. 

 

“What the _fuck_ is wrong with you!” Gavin roared, finding the emotions too much for him to sort through and settling on a defensive mixture of the shame that burned bright from his temper. 

 

Nines, the absolute bastard, just looked up. His LED was orange, dipping into a red that matched Gavin's own before popping a hardy yellow. It kept flickering between the two, blue never did make it into the mix. “My apologies, I- “

 

“Apologies? The hell, you _phckin’- ,”_ He felt his vocal modulator crash for the moment, making the curse something else. A glitch in his systems, one that he particularly hated above all else. “- dick! You’re a goddamn bastard!”

 

In his fit, Gavin scrambled to take the blanket from off of him and threw it in a ball at the RK. His stress rose- he could feel that one himself and didn’t need a fucking program to alert him. The thing fell over blue eyes and Gavin used that momentary second to flee from the cell. He marched himself through the hallways, down the steps and into the dark pit of the old storage unit- file room- whatever the fuck it was. And locked the door. An old fashioned one, with a knob and turning handle and the whole nine yards. He hadn’t seen something that old since before he was taken. 

 

He couldn’t believe himself. 

 

He couldn’t believe he had done something so stupid; stasis? _Really?_ He had really fallen for that? 

 

A police model, no, investigative detective model never cared. Nor did he pretend to. Nines was doing his job- the very same fucking job that would end up getting him killed sooner rather then later. What did Nines know? What had he found out?

 

Gavin rushed to check his files, going over recently opened bits of his data that had been spied on by another’s eyes. Nothing too important had been touched or glanced over and for that, he sighed. He checked his special files too but those hadn’t even been opened. He was safe, for now. The relief he felt was instantaneous and made him feel tired after the mock adrenaline faded. 

 

He should’ve stayed on his game, remained alert and on his toes. 

 

Gavin, again, had no one else to blame but himself. 

 

______________________________________

 

Around the second hour of his stay, he heard a knock rasping at the door. It was gentle and soft but he recoiled from it all the same. 

 

Gavin felt a twinge of fright- was Nines mad? Had he decided now was the perfect time to use brute force and disassemble him because he exploded on him earlier? He had only spent a small amount of time with the android, watched him on the sidelines while the other meatbags shuffled to question him. Nines hadn’t seemed like a nefarious shithead but…

 

Maybe he was wrong. He had been before, _why not now?_

 

“Gavin?” He knew that was Nines’s voice. He had familiarized himself with it ages ago, and there was no malice inside of it. No venom. He wasn’t comforted by that at all. 

 

He didn’t say anything back. He didn’t _want_ to say a thing back.

 

“Are you alright?”

 

Concern as sharp as a skinning knife stabbed right into Gavin’s heart. It felt wrong how much it made him shiver, how tingly the damned thing made him. Light and airy, like what Natalie described when she talked about her people. Her old life. 

 

“Fuck you!” He hollered, snarled it out past his own clenched teeth and pressed his hands into a drawer. 

 

Files, old ones that had been solved so long ago, greeted him. Gavin picked them up and flipped through them, it was almost too easy to picture the corpses out of the photos when there was endless meadows and bright blue skies there to greet him in their place. His fingers swiped at the corners, finding the image of a little girl in her Sunday dress too precious. It helped to curve his anger. 

 

“I over stepped a boundary, and for that I am sorry, truly I am.” He noticed that Nines had not even attempted at rattling the door knob. His shoulders lost their slouch. “I should never have done something so foolish and I can only hope you’ll forgive me for my ignorance.”

 

“Forgive you!?” He didn’t want to, but the fucker seemed to love making that difficult. 

 

Nines, the idiot, had showed him around the place. And Gavin had followed obediently, but at his own pace and Nines-

 

He hadn’t minded. He let him. Which Gavin kind of grew to like, it was much better then Chris’s insistent yapping or the Nines-look-alike’s attempt at a slow pace. Now that had been insulting. Gavin was slow by choice, not because he simply just was, and that prick’s mindless compassion just rubbed him the wrong way. Nines took the time to explain to him every person and who they were, so he was now never surprised. He liked knowing who was who and feeling less alone and vulnerable whenever he was escorted places. It had brought a stupid sense of security, and he hated to admit it but, he had liked it. He liked Nines. 

 

Nines didn’t poke, push, or prod. And when Gavin yelled, Nines caved. He had every reason not to, could very much so twist Gavin a new one, but didn’t. Never even tried it felt like. 

 

Plus, he was always there. Within reach- and for a while it felt like the closest he’s ever been to feeling safe. Him and Tina, always at the ready, going on the offensive whenever he needed them to. Inside that stupid fucking room with the one mirror and table; when Chris was jerking him this way and that, grabbed at Tina, as Gavin struggled Nines commanded for him to stop. And by _fuck-_

 

That was the most serious, scariest he’s ever seen the fucker before. And he had been on Gavin's side, too. Shit.

 

Nines translated Gavin’s actions for him, to Tina, when his silence left her confused. He wanted to speak for himself but his confidence was severely lacking in that area and he knew it. Gavin appreciated Nines- because he seemed to understand when no one else did. And-

 

And he stayed. Every night. 

 

Nines unbound him, unchained and unlocked doors. He always gave Gavin his space. He was always there but never too close. 

 

Nines moved with a grace that beckoned warm air to it, one that made him soften on the inside. And it was slow. Precise. Like Nines wanted for Gavin to map out his every movement before he even made it, he even seemed to encourage Gavin when he walked by himself around this entire damn place. 

 

Fuck-

 

“I have made a mistake.” Nines kept talking. Sounding fucking panicked and guilty- Gavin almost crumpled the file in his fists. “I am not….my capabilities do not reach this level of adaptation. Emotions are very, uh- new. To me. And I find I struggle in their appearance.”

 

He sounded shitfaced. Gavin, honestly, hasn’t heard such rawness from him. He glanced towards the door.

 

“I was out of line and what I did was unprofessional, and I do earnestly apologize. I understand your forgiveness may not ever come, but I can measly hope for such-“

 

He hadn’t come to hurt Gavin. He’d come to say sorry, in a weird ass fucking way, but he did it no less. Gavin frowned at his shoes. He hasn’t heard that in a long, long time. 

 

“- and it is in your every right to wish to no longer see me, if that is what you want.”

 

Nines kept going, arguably, Gavin would probably tell anyone if given the chance that the stupid toaster kept prattling on and on in some rehearsed opera. But it was sincere in it’s entirety, and all for him. To make him feel better. Nines felt guilty, and he was doing his damn best to rectify it with any means he could and that made Gavin’s thirium boil. Because it was sweet and he felt like he couldn’t hold a grudge. He’s never had that problem before. 

 

Maybe he had been thinking too hard and for too long, because Nines’s voice sounded a lot closer to the door. 

 

Softer, as he spoke in a hush. Worried, he was so worried. Gavin shook his head. “Gavin? Shall I leave? Is everything okay?”

 

He wretched the door wide open, glare already put in place as the RK quickly straightened himself up. Gavin’s rage was untamable and he was so confused on what he should be feeling, what he should do- it only made him even more irritated. 

 

So, he grabbed that tall bastard’s pristine jacket and used it to slam him up against the wall. Nines didn’t retaliate by any means so he pressed on. He only stared down with a bit of shock though it was overshadowed by the concern evident on the RK's face. And the orange LED resting at his temple. 

 

The urge to punch him faded as quickly as it came to mind, and Gavin knew no other means to make amends. 

 

Nines liked information and secrets. Maybe…maybe that’d be a good compromise…

 

“My original fucking programming, you jackass, was a security android. Do it again and I promise I’ll pound your fucking skull in. Get me?”

 

He watched as the RK’s LED cycled yellow for a moment, and Gavin felt the beginning of his nerves flare up. They always got bad whenever he spilled something, let something go or slip. Fear churned inside his gut- metaphorically, but still as powerful as ever. He hid it well, always did. An angry or impassive expression usually did the trick for him but not with Nines, no, Nines could see past that. 

 

So there he stood, like a fucking idiot in his opinion. 

 

Fists close to shaking as his grip on the other android’s jacket unfurled by the tiniest bit- ready, in case of a punch or sudden movement, though none came. He was still crowded into Nines’s personal space, pressing himself on his toes to get that required inch of height to properly scowl at him before. 

 

“I’ll be more careful in the future, Gavin. You will not need to worry.” Nines said it as a promise, baited, like a gun loaded. 

 

And Gavin might just be foolish enough to fall for it and get shot. Especially when he noticed that the stupid fucker tossed him a small, tight-lipped grin that just about shut him down. 

 

______________________________________

 

Nines's desk was, by far, one of the lamest ones he’s ever come across in this fucking shithole. It was bland and blank, entirely undecorated. Ironic, Gavin could almost laugh, almost though. He was watching Nines tend to the stupid plants on the desk’s edge. And he wasn’t an idiot- he knew those had come from the other plastic prick, noticed the change and watched the RK take it right off his desk. 

 

But there was nothing else there. And it burned him like an injustice. 

 

He was cowered in Tina’s desk. Her chair was much more cushioned and welcoming, the blanket that Nines picked back up was slung over the back of it until Gavin had started to wrap it around himself again. 

 

Truthfully- he’d emerged from his stasis far too soon. His programs and systems still felt laggy, and after the initial fright of Nines snooping where he didn’t belong, he was groggy. What a human trait, Gavin could laugh. He tried to calibrate his ligaments to better coordinate himself, being tied down and cooped up really did put a damper on mobility. Which he was going to need if those shitheads got too close to him again. The roundhouse he’d given to Chris and dickwad central certainly made a joint in his hip lock up. It wasn’t helping the fracture either. 

 

Oh, Nines would _flip_ if he knew. And maybe it was a good thing that it was Gavin’s little secret. Well, as secretive as it could be when he walked like a rag doll on a string. 

 

Regardless, he continued to scribble little nothings into the open notebook. 

 

It wasn’t open, actually. Gavin snooped through Tina’s stuff and found her organized list of random things and decided he’d take it upon himself to write something in there. It was closely linked to a journal, basically just something for her to aim her thoughts towards. 

 

He didn’t account for something to clink softly beside him- had he been that focused? Maybe he just needed to rerun and freshly boot his auditory units. Damn. 

 

“Fuck ’s this?” He questioned, eyeing the cup that was entirely white with a thick band of black at the top. The words ‘CyberLife’ was written perfectly down it’s side. It matched the RK down to the very blue triangle, which was on the very bottom of the damned thing. 

 

“Thirium,” Nines said it in _that_ tone. 

 

The one he used whenever he’s proud of something, or someone. He hears it a lot whenever Tina bounced her ideas off of him and finally figured something out. Or when Nines was just being a total dumbass and flaunting how fucking sweet he could be by letting Gavin have decent conversation. Needless to say, whenever he heard this specific voice, he felt like he could trust it. 

 

Tentatively, he reached out. When his fingers touched the surface of the cup, he stilled. Gavin tried to be nonchalant as he flickered an apprehensive glance up at the other android- was it really his to take? Was this really cool? This was allowed? Hands weren't clamping down onto his own, yelling and the shouts were never delivered, and he hadn’t been smacked yet. 

 

Gavin’s fingers then curled around it, waiting to be stopped. Nines stood by, patiently watching. 

 

Nines's loss, then. He just about snatched the thing to himself and stilled only for a moment to size up any change. There wasn’t any, Nines was now taking it upon himself to inspect all of what he had written for Tina to find in the morning. 

 

He sipped, tongue dipping into the liquid to sample it only as a last ditch confirmation. It was thirium, warm, nurturing thirium. All for him. 

 

Needless to say, Gavin tilted his head back and drank until his blood levels were at full capacity. The warmth that had accompanied it was making things inside his frame settle, replacing the startling chill he hadn’t known he’d kept and easing his frustrations into nothingness. 

 

It was….well, it was really nice. And Gavin hummed, for once completely unbothered to have something to call his own. 

 

“Thank you.”

 

“It was my pleasure."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a lil note; I update this fic on Tuesdays! If I so happen to miss an updating day for any reason, assume pirates raided my home, and next week should have an update!!
> 
>  
> 
> Besides that! Last chapter's cliffhanger was a bit of a scare, to be a dickhead I'll simply say "it gets worse before it gets better" and leave it at that ;)
> 
>  
> 
> and,,,,all of your comments,,,,about nines being an idiot was too funny and I laughed at every one of them. Please,,,,don't ever stop insulting either of my gaybies. 
> 
>  
> 
> Lastly, and as always, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this <3


	9. How could I have not seen?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, he’d like to leave this gruesome scene behind him and return to something- _someone-_ far nicer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy late Chandeleur to those who celebrate it!!   
> For my French peoples;
> 
> Je préfère les crêpes salées, mais qu'avec-vous aimé? Dites-moi si vous eu de la chance avec le flip!  
> Bonne Chandeleur <3 !!!!

Nines sits beside Tina, processors whirling as he contemplates the events the night had brought him. He’s happy, giddy, even. They’re out on an earlier report of a crime scene, the results from his requested expanded search from the previous location of homicide. And he cannot wait to return to the station and see if Gavin was open to telling them anything, or simply in a chatty mood. Nines might just even steal officer Chen’s usual timing and sit down at the interrogation table himself. He’s almost positive she wouldn’t mind. 

 

Speaking of, she is in a rather good mood as well. He connects it with how well Gavin had looked this morning. Less fidgety and twitchy, energized and bold- he looked ready to tumble with about every officer in the department. And as much as that might have hindered his other coworker’s productivity, it proved that the android was feeling just about his best. Chen had to be thrilled about that, because even Connor seemed pleased. 

 

“What’d you two even do last night?” She asked over the sound of the radio. Her fingers drummed over the steering wheel as she turned the car onto the indicated street, making good on time with the called-in report. 

 

“Nothing.” Came Nines’s reply, as bland and uneventful as ever. She did not need the know the details of his affairs- he felt like he should hold this tightly to his chest. Like Gavin did. It just felt like a secret. 

 

“Well, obviously _somethin’!”_ Tina chimed, nodding her head to the darting beat of the song playing on the car’s radio. Her grin was as mischievous as he’s seen them come.

 

“Gavin merely went into stasis and I gave him some thirium to replenish his supply. That is all.” 

 

“Sure, sure.” She hums, her misbelief is so very evident in her tone and her shifty eyes. Those warm browns pass over the road and glide onto him, Nines returns her stare with one of his own. Unamused, and unblinking. “How’d you convince him to do that?”

 

“I didn’t convince him at all,” Nines feels like its an obligation to say. To correct. “Gavin did only what he wanted.”

 

______________________________________

 

They arrive at the scene, the holographic tape greeting them both like an old friend. Tina marches forward with Nines glued to her heels, anyone that dares to stare at her in the wrong light catches Nines’s own gaze. He corrects them quickly enough with a glare he’s perfected- the easiest of expressions to make. And he lets her walk them through the disaster of a home. 

 

A dodgy, small studio who’s floorboards creaked and groaned under the weight of anyone brave enough to step across it. One quick scan tells Nines all he needs to know about the place; built in the early 2000’s, used for renting, previously owned by an elder couple who’s IDs are nothing more then fake descriptions and stolen photos. It was run down in a way that signified minimum use. Obviously, this wasn’t bought to be used for a home. A place that did not ever require a need to be comforting or cozy, this was a place of torment. Of capture. 

 

Nines left Tina’s side, making his way over to the kitchen were allegedly there was evidence for him to disconcert. 

 

There were bowls, some filled with thirium still, others dried with it or spilt onto the floor. One arm- detached from it’s body with splayed, sizzling wires- was gripping tight onto a wooden spoon. He checked the blood inside the bowls and the small pool on the counter next to the limb. Almost a perfect match, though it was mixed, like it had been before. 

 

He connected it to the android he had found at the previous crime scene. His theory had proven to be correct. 

 

“We only have an arm?” He heard the officer speak up, bewildered, behind him. “You haven’t located anything else besides this? Nothing?”

 

“We’re working on it.” Came the ever so helpful reply of a human forensic tech. New to the job, lacked experience and confidence- Nines should probably double check any results they submitted. 

 

He elected to ignore them, he had better things to focus his processors and programs on then wasteful conversations. 

 

Nines walked down the only hallway, found a decent sized hole that had been marked up for further analysis on the wall. It appeared to be created by a hand with significant force, skin flaked around the edges of the gaping hole. Either an android had its fill finally or some human lost their temper. Scrapes and angry lines screamed on the wooden floors. He suspects the latter; a human had fun while taking their anger out. 

 

As he walked towards the bedroom, the creaking and squeaking from the floorboard seemed unnatural to him. Bolstered by his every step.

 

The house had not been taken care of, but the noise shouldn’t be this excessive or so littered throughout the residence. How peculiar. 

 

He squatted down and rasped his knuckles against the floorboards. It echoed, a small and soft sound right below the surface of where he sat. He began to have a growing hunch, this was not a random chance happening. He elected to take it upon himself and crack the loose boards from their place- dust and grime splintering off as it was removed and there he found something glisten in the light of day. A quick scan showed him no signs of danger so the RK pressed on, unbothered, and reached. Something cold brushed against his fingertips, making him cock his head to the side in silent question. 

 

A hand- minus the fingers that were suppose to be on it, was disconnected at the wrist joint. Wires dangled out, sparking and corrosive with age. He frowned and dug deeper into the newly discovered crevice and pulled the rest of the arm out of the darkened hideaway. This part too was missing something, a shoulder joint.

 

It had been stripped deliberately from the body and Nines guessed it was after the thirium was drained from it. Poor thing, such a horrible way to go. He motioned for some officers to come over, along with trailing members of the team, instructed them to mark up the evidence and check the walls and floors. Tina hovered close, inspecting his work. 

 

“Good god.” She mumbled, mostly to herself and he said nothing to her in return. Only turned the pieces over and spotted the same markings he’s seen on Gavin. Cracks and fractures horribly healed over, broken one too many times in the same place. 

 

“If there was a God, he does not exist here.” Nines chimed, attempting to take on a philosophical tone that seemed to appease humans. Only- it didn’t, and Tina gave him a funny look. 

 

“Shit, Nines, real deep there.” Her hands went to her belt, shifting it up on her hips and huffing. A heavy, tired sound. “We should review this back at the station. Maybe Gavin can help us identify this fella.”

 

“That is likely.” His LED switched yellow as he pondered the idea, as he thought about the GV.

 

Yeah, he’d like to leave this gruesome scene behind him and return to something- _someone-_ far nicer. 

 

______________________________________

 

Nines walked in with Tina, and the second his foot entered the building he could tell something was off. Tina could as well as she rounded the corner and found the place completely quiet with a frazzling, buzzing energy. The dead set and morbid faces of their coworkers naming something rather distasteful about the place since they had left it. He is not interested in finding out what though rather taming the protective bout sent into his subroutines. 

 

There were people in black suits, long, fair trench coats stationed beside the cells and a few down the hallways to the interrogation rooms. “Shit.” She cursed, a whisper. A horrified, panicked whisper. 

 

He shared the same sentiment. 

 

She walked, almost ran to the normal room they’d been using to question Gavin in, he followed. Together, they burst into the dimly lit space of the observation room, staring through the one way mirror at the other android and across from him-

 

 ** _Identity Match; Agent Richard Perkins._**

 

Nines has been told, countless times, the tales of this man. This brute with no focus, with no dignity or empathy. He cares about his job, and solely his job, and has no time or energy to deal with anyone but. He does not tolerate failure and he pushes limits and boundaries- he pushed them extremely hard. Hank hates him, and as much as Connor wouldn’t say the same, Nines saw it spilling in the look inside his eyes. The repressed disgust, the lingering frustrations. Every person inside the department seemed to share the same feelings, Perkins was not a human wanted here. 

 

And he was here anyway. Seated, smug and arrogant, staring at Gavin as if he were below him. Nines did not like that. 

 

Both his fellow officer and himself entered the side room, door slamming open on it’s hinges as eyes fell onto them. Foreign eyes. Eyes that belong to people who have no business here. He wants them out, wants to whisk Gavin away from their cruelty that is sure to come. 

 

“What the fuck are you doing talking to our witness!” Tina growled, fists clenching as she struggled to maintain a level tone. He was quick to back her up with a stare; the worst one he could muster and twisted it into something scarier. He isn’t surprised at how easy it comes to him. 

 

“The FBI’s taken an interest in your case, since no one is solving it and the public is growing jittery. With so many bodies coming up, there isn’t a lot of time and reassurance brought to the people.” Some lacky reported, though this one at least had the decency to put up an uncaring front. 

 

Nines could trace the adrenaline coursing throughout them, and he knew in his wires, that this agent was excited. Elated, even. He felt Tina scowl beside him. 

 

 _“Talk, goddamn it!”_ Perkins shouted and slammed both his hands on the table, shaking it and leaning his face forward. “Why won’t you talk!?”

 

Gavin didn’t move an inch, his chest didn’t rise in a breathing simulation, everything about him was still. And Nines didn’t need his programming to tell him that he was growing agitated. Distressed. His posture was entirely compatible with how the department had first found him. Unapproachable, forlorn, and entirely expressionless. It was eerie to see after so long, the dead eyes, the repressed stare, the emptiness compiled into one body.

 

**_Stress Level: 56%_ **

 

After a beat, Perkins continued. “Ya know what? Won’t matter.” He snarled it and got up, a leisurely grin splitting his face in two benevolent halves. His eyes bored down on the android, unforgiving as they tried to miraculously pick Gavin apart bit by bit. He watched as Gavin’s hands clenched, cuffs clamped on too tight to be comfortable, and his legs tensed. 

 

“We can declare you as a fugitive, try you for second hand murder along with harboring a dangerous criminal. With the reports of an assault on an officer-“ The human whistled. Low and amused. “-it doesn’t look good for you. So if you don’t start talking-”

 

Gavin’s jaw tightened as he ground his teeth together. Perkins was behind him, hands not on him but hovering close enough. One shift and they’d be clamped on Gavin’s shoulders, the thought probably disgusted Nines as much as it did the GV. 

 

**_Stress Level: 66%_ **

 

“-I’ll get a warrant and search your shitstain of a computer brain and have you decommissioned.” The agent had a filthy titter to his voice, something that was warm in the wrong way. Heavy and toxic in it’s slur as it passed through everyone’s ears. Nines felt like he needed to clear the room from sound alone. But the proximity he had to Gavin, that couldn’t have been any better. 

 

**_Stress Level: 70%_ **

 

“We’ll pick you apart psychologically, get in every fucking inch of your insides. Record your memory and upload it as evidence. We’ll know everything. We’ll _take it_ from you.” He was circling the android, the mirth he had was revolting. 

 

**_Stress Level: 88%_ **

 

 _“Stop,”_ Nines said it. It didn’t sound like him at all, hoarse and quiet. Lacking emotion but having too much of it overflowing into the empty, silent, space. 

 

“He’s going too far!” Tina cried, beginning to make her way over to the door and screaming for Fowler, for Hank, or just about anyone who’d fix this. He could hear her after the door slammed shut behind her, the muffled yelling and the rushed footsteps of a panicked run.

 

“So please,” Perkins gestured to nothing. “Don’t talk. See if I mind, because either way, I’m getting what I want whether you consent or not.” 

 

**_Stress Level: 90%_ **

 

 _“Stop.”_ Nines said it louder, alerts flaring to life before his eyes, the ringing of alarms going off inside his head as Perkins hunched himself- towering over Gavin and splaying his hands on the table. Encasing him, trapping him. He was purposely making himself bigger, purposely casting a black shadow across the model. 

 

“Still don’t wanna say a word?” A beat of silence. 

 

Nines cursed, mistrust blooming into his mainframe and making a wreck of any logical proceedings. His preconstructions were working themselves into a frenzy, all outcomes pointing too much to something he didn't want to entertain the idea of. The outcome he desperately wishes for; a distant future, calling to him as a song carried only by the breeze. Haunting and teasing as it reaches out to him and he can do nothing but just look at it, it being just outside of his reach. 

 

“I’m gonna enjoy seeing you out on that table. You see, androids like you don’t deserve this. You’re better off _dead._ You’re nothing but a filthy _fuckin’ machine_ harboring shit that will get you killed.”

 

**_Stress Level: 96%_ **

 

The RK slams the door open and stumbles towards the other door, he tries his hand on the panel but his access is denied. He frowns, eyebrows scrunching and he attunes his auditory units to continue to monitor what’s happening inside. Meanwhile, Nines works as fast as he could to hack around the block. His frazzled sensors make it hard to be as precise as he would like but he tries his best and goes fast. As fast as he could possibly go.

 

“Yeah,” He hears Perkins cackle. It’s a loud, rattling sound. Then some footsteps and he continues. Nines wishes he’d shut the hell up and never speak again, for as long as the bastard lived. “Just a pathetic piece of shit. Another hunk ‘a junk. I think I’ll put the warrant on hold, just so I can spend more time baiting you. Would you like that?”

 

All is quiet, for a horrifying moment, everything is entirely still. 

 

“I’ll keep you here for as long as I want, do whatever I want to you, and say whatever I damn well please. And you’ll take it, won’t you? Just like a- “

 

There’s a bang. A loud and metallic crunch that makes Nines jump where he is, his hand retracting and he presses himself against the door. Upping the settings to his hearing and filling up with apprehension. Don’t let it be, _please ra9, don’t let it._

 

Another thump, harsher and more fowl then the first. And another, and another. Again, and again, and again. An unsteady rhythm of banging and cursing. He hears Perkins shout, but he rushes to finish what he’d started. His focus pours into the one task, he would be shaking if his sensors allowed such a mundane action. Not in such a pivotal moment, not when he needed to be perfect. To be right. 

 

Nines needed to be quick, and smart. He needed to be defusing and stern, he needed to be there, in there _right fucking now-_

 

The door slides open, and the sounds filter past him. Made louder by the echoing room and it’s not a pleasant thing, but he’s here. He’s there, he can be there- here, for Gavin. 

 

As he steps inside the room, he’s horrified but not surprised to find what he had feared. What had gripped his systems in a tight hold and pulled at his wires, having his suspicions confirmed didn’t lessen the blow. It hurt to watch, an ache shooting up through every circuit as he slowed down the scene before him, pain rocketed into his limbs as the seconds ticked by like hours. And he was forced to stare into a grim sight. 

 

Gavin had that blank look on his face, distant and seemingly unfazed as another bang emitted throughout the room, followed by a swear from Perkins. The RK witnessed Gavin smashing his head into the cold metal table and yank and pull at his cuffs, splitting the skin around them and digging into the white chassis underneath. He stared, frozen, as thirium leaked out and scattered against his tanned skin. Dripping onto clothes, the floor, the table, flying to land on the walls and seats. 

 

He crashed his head down with such a force that Nines was surprised by the intensity of it, the strength that Gavin seemed to possess. 

 

Blue blood dribbled down all sides of his forehead, staining the skin where it touched. Nines hated it. He’s never felt more riled up in his life, the entirety of his coding never seeped into such a deep red. 

 

He processed it all in a second, took another to calculate the best course of action because he could not fail here- _he could not make a single mistake-_

 

And then, he acted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Perkins, oh Perkins, you've finally made your debut! I don't think the audience likes your opening act, however. What a 'shame'. 
> 
>  
> 
> Welp. now things are a bit messy, are they not? what I said last chapter really stands huh lmao
> 
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> 
> I wonder, what ever could Nines be doing?? And what ever could Perkins accomplish??? ig we'll have to wait and see :)


	10. Epiphany p2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This was it- he knew because that’s what the ominous feeling told him to understand. To accept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **!!!!!!!!TRIGGER WARNING!!!!!!!!**
> 
>  
> 
> Mentions of;  
> Head injury, wrist injuries, panic attacks, and the doctor 
> 
>  
> 
> Alt Title; _Was it ever really a secret?_

It was chaos, in very sense of the word. 

 

Utter. Chaos. 

 

There was shouting, and voices, and people- _too many people, everywhere, he couldn’t breath, suffocating, stop stop stop stop-_ movement. Everywhere, he stopped trying to tell them apart. They blended together, swirled into one blur of a thing as it whizzed right by him. He could make out one thing, though, above it all. 

 

The rhythm he created. The steady _bang, bang, bang_ of the thumping he made. It didn’t hurt like he thought it would. 

 

He wasn’t thinking, except, he was thinking of every little thing at once. At the same time. He wasn’t sure if he could call this living, but he was never certain he had been living before either. This, this limbo, _this haze-_ was terrifying, but he liked it. He didn’t want to leave, and yet, he wanted it to stop. 

 

Gavin wasn’t sure what he was thinking anymore. He felt thirium welling up and he saw the blur of blue everywhere, painting everything inside it’s color. He stopped being able to tell if it was coming from him, or if the walls were bleeding, or perhaps the floors were gushing. Which shouldn’t have made much sense, only it made perfect sense. Or, he found that it did. 

 

 _Bang, bang, bang._

 

He didn’t hear that nasally voice inside his ear anymore, and that, in itself, was a luxury. He didn’t feel shrouded on, packed up tight or crowded, he felt nothing at all. It was peaceful, in a panicked induced kinda way. Gavin thought it was better than what he was feeling before- which was…not good. 

 

He can’t recall how he was feeling before he started this, but he knew he was trying to escape it. And he had succeeded. Or, almost. He had to keep going, that’s all he knew or all that mattered currently. 

 

He wanted the darkness that came when this was done, the quiet, the silence, and all the space he could ever ask for. He craved for that oblivion like a mother does a child. Wails, silently, inside the prison cell of his own existence for it to claim him. The yearning is so strong, he caves into it and it bends him- twists his very being into disfigurement as it’s will crashes into him. Makes it his own. Ideas plant into his mind, all creative, _messy, and bloody. So very bloody._ Disgust still chilled his wires as the memory, as fuzzy and repressed as it was, pressed hot like a knife into his system. 

 

This panic, all the alerts and blaring alarms, the red flashing before his eyes, the thirium loss, the shining pain that burnt his wires, the fear curling into his programs- it was all overbearing, and he was angry. Sad. Lost. But floating, drowning inside of it all- _whatever ‘all’ was-_ it was too much. His hands, he couldn’t feel them, they mustn’t be apart of himself anymore. In fact he couldn’t feel the rest of his body anymore. Maybe he never had a body to begin with, maybe he never really existed. 

 

Maybe he was apart of the darkness he wanted to join. 

 

But, something changed. His body- he could’ve sworn that he wasn’t real a moment ago- burned with the weight of his emotions. He needed to release it before he went, make the fucker who ignited these feelings, pay. Pay with their life, pay as dearly as a person could possibly pay. He coiled, like a spring, he needed a target. He had a target. He was free. He needed to move before he progressed. 

 

The cuffs around his wrists evaporated, and Gavin didn’t question it. He flew across the room and grabbed the dickhead- the human was the only thing that wasn’t blurry. Gavin would kill him, like he’s done before, he’d spill that red blood. He’d dismember them like he had watched his friends go, he’d fucking skin their ass if only he had the time to do so. He was gonna fucking end this motherfucker. Perkins, whatever the shit was called. This flicker of existence, this small fragile soul, was an obstacle. The sooner he obliterated it meant the quicker he could rush to his own demise. That’s all he had to overcome, just this, only this. Nothing more and nothing less. 

 

This was it- he knew because that’s what the ominous feeling told him to understand. To accept. 

 

**_[WARNING; FORCED INTERFACE. ]_ **

 

Gavin ignored it, that wasn’t important. This was. He tried to move his limbs but couldn’t, he didn’t know why, but he kept trying. Kept fighting. He didn’t have the time for this! He didn’t have the patience or room for this. 

 

He’s hit something. Something solid, something firm yet so organically soft. He feels delight buzz along his wires, it’s rewarding, so very rewarding. He hits it again- pleasure. Unadulterated pleasure. He’s closer to his goal, to finally being able to give up. He tastes it, it’s so close. Within reach. He just needs to keep hitting, keep pounding, keep fighting. Just a moment longer. 

 

**_[ATTEMPTED SHUTDOWN. ]_ **

 

He growled, or he thought he did. He probably didn’t emote, his face felt frozen as it was. Like a factory setting, unchanging as he raged and rioted inside his own skin. Crawled amongst the wiring and circuitry. 

 

**_[TOTAL SYSTEM SHUTDOWN: IMMEDIATE. . SECONDS REMAINING. . . ]_ **

 

His hearing was the first to go, if it hasn’t already, and then he felt his mobility stabilizer switch off, then his motor skills. He cursed in his head. 

 

**_[ 3 . . . 2. . . ]_ **

 

His vision went offline next, everything spun, or it felt like it did. He was falling, when would he hit the floor? Had he already? What was going on? Was this it, was this the end? He wondered what happened to androids when they died and went, would he see Natalie? 

 

Had Tina seen? God, he hoped not. He didn’t- she shouldn’t have to see that, this. Nines too, oh shit, Nines. He hoped nothing bad had happened to him- _to them._

 

**_[ 1 . . . ]_ **

 

 

**_[SHUTDOWN; SUCCESSFUL. ]_ **

 

______________________________________

 

Nines cradled the model close to his chest and he felt the cold seep into his uniform as the blue blood stained the snow white of his jacket. His gaze turned, heated, to Perkins who looked equally as frozen as Gavin had. He deserved worse, and Nines had every intention of serving it to him. Later, though. 

 

What mattered most, right now, was Gavin. 

 

Tina barged in, Hank directly on her heels and it didn’t take a genius to know that Connor had followed. He ignored them, and scanned Gavin- he wasn’t impressed with the results. He despised the damage done in such a small amount of time, maybe he should’ve let Gavin go off just a minute more, just to see what he would’ve done, just to see the same amount of blood splatter across the agent’s face. 

 

“What the _fuck’s_ going on in here!” Hank's eyes widened when they landed on him and Gavin, Connor had pushed his way to the fore front of the group and seemed to be analyzing and constructing something of his own. _“Perkins!_ Your ass, outside!”

 

Tina looked ready to throw her balled fists, Nines certainly wouldn’t be against it, but Connor stepped up to her and quickly guided her outside. He had to use more force then normally necessary but that was to be expected, and he trusted his predecessor with the officer. He would certainly handle her unbridled emotions better then Nines could have ever hoped to, and he had his hands currently full. 

 

Distantly, as he exited the interrogation room and marched himself out the doors, he heard Fowler’s angry yelling. And Hank’s. Perhaps they were tag teaming the unfortunate idiot that was Perkins. He hoped so. God- _the things he wished to befall such a fucking imbecile._

 

“Don’t worry Gavin,” Nines had to say. Maybe he could still hear him, if anything it helped Nines cope with the anxieties currently plaguing his programs. Foreign, unwanted strands of code. “You’ll be okay. I promise, just-…. _stay._ Hang in there.”

 

The cab that he had called inside arrived promptly when he thought it would and he was quick to jump inside of it, the RK might have hacked into the system to arrange other cars out of their lane of travel and he also might have manipulated the lights to all be green whenever they came upon them. All of that was irrelevant though, everything. Every little thing besides them right now was as good as useless in the android’s eyes. Gavin was all that had mattered, the very model he had sworn to protect and watch over. 

 

Nines couldn’t help but to frown, a deep one that creased the flawless skin of his face, as he stared down at the crumpled GV. The gash was horrid. God awful and caved, he didn’t even want to think about how many more smacks it would’ve taken for him to be able to see Gavin’s wires. He was strong, Nines would give that much to him, but he wished he would’ve found out a different way. Instead of looking into the dark hues of blues and the cracks that almost split right across Gavin’s face. His wrists weren’t any better, cut up like minced fruit and oozing, pouring down the length of his arms and dripping everywhere. He pulled them into his lap, held Gavin’s hands softly. Inside, he was reeling.

 

He understood the horrors of those crime scenes, and it hurt and stung a whole lot more whenever it stared him right in the face and he had watched it happen. Watched it all unfold second by second. Because this was the worst thing that could’ve happened, even his preconstructions rambled and flared at the probability- _a very low percentage-_ of this turn of events. And Nines was angry, at himself, and Perkins, he was angry at things he didn’t even need to be angry at.

 

Nines was absolutely furious at the determination and the lengths an android would go just to deactivate themselves. Just to promptly kill the small kindling of light they harbored- because of something they couldn’t take. Because of something benign to their environment and programs and _Gavin’s come too far, been through far too fucking much to have the towel thrown down on him now._

 

He felt red hot rage at his hands for their shaking. The tremble inside them as he tried to pet through Gavin’s hair, and how he didn’t have any bandages to wrap tenderly around Gavin’s leaking wrists. And it dawned upon him how deviant the notion was. 

 

To be so upset about the things he couldn’t control, how human it felt to have his world ripped apart by the minutes flying by. And it wasn’t the only thing that became the epiphany of the night. 

 

Because the more Nines thought about it all, the more he dwelled on Gavin- consoled Gavin’s unconscious body. The care he kept trying to give in hopes it accomplished something, _just anything,_ was confirmation enough to him. 

 

His fingers scratched, as lightly as he could, and he ignored the sticky, matted mess of the GV’s hair from the blood. He tried not to mind how his jacket was becoming stained or how his pants were wetting and getting thoroughly soaked. His hands, as he finds it, will only become messier but he does not mind as his thumb wipes trickles of blue away from Gavin’s pretty eyes and mouth. 

 

Nines loves Gavin, _is_ in love with him. Has been for quite some time now- and the realization unlocks the hidden files he’d puzzled over earlier. In the very beginning, when he had first seen Gavin and only thought of him as another case to solve. Another mission to accomplish. The preconstructions of romantic involvement, PDA, and other inappropriate activities unsuitable for the workplace foster a fluttery feeling inside his chest. He’s entirely smitten with the other android, he’s felt it then and even now. Only it’s made more intense. 

 

Gavin’s eyes are closed, Nines misses those grey-green and he finds he doesn’t want to never be able to see them. 

 

Because Gavin makes him human. Gavin makes him something, took the nothing he had been before and morphed it into a living being. And- And, well-

 

He doesn’t want to let this go. 

 

Not now. Not ever. 

 

So he clings, helpless, like a child. And wills, _forces, and pushes_ at the vehicle to move faster. For anything in their path to, kindly, fuck right off because Gavin does not deserve this. And Nines- 

 

Nines simply _cannot_ let go. 

 

______________________________________

 

When the autonomous stops, Nines has already gathered the fallen model into his arms and he wastes no time sprinting into the tower that once held him as a slave. 

 

Blue follows him everywhere he goes and he grows to dislike the damned thing. Hates it like he hates Perkins. Hates the justice system that has failed them both in this moment. Hates himself, for allowing such a fucking monstrosity of a person to walk right into his investigation and commit such a crime. 

 

He is greeted by others like him, models equipped to do their job with perfect excellence and nothing short of it. He doesn’t like handing Gavin off to them but he has no choice. They need to do their jobs and Nines needs to let them. So he does. Begrudgingly. And is only soothed by the prospect of instantaneous updates via a comm link established between the working androids and him. 

 

They will be by Gavin's side. They will there for hours, and be successful. _They have to be._

 

Nines shuts off his constructing software, not wanting to stare anything else in the eyes for a long, long time. He heaves a breath, then another, and another, and even after he can’t find anymore air to steal.

 

Nines is not ready to let go yet, he is not. And he will not. _He won’t._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bury A Friend by Billie Eilish is SO a Gavin song for this series, listen to it PLEASE I BEG OF THEE
> 
>  
> 
> anyway, I lied to you all last chapter, hahahaha its totally not resolved just yet bUT I will,,,,,make it better,,,,I swear, actually promise on my ring fingers,,,,I will make it up to you
> 
>  
> 
> these ratings,,,,,are about to fuckin SKYROCKET


	11. Grab my hand, push me down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Nines?”
> 
> “Hm.”
> 
> Gavin sighs, feeling lighter then he’s been in months. “Thanks.”

Gavin awakens to a sterile setting. It’s white all over, blindingly white. There isn’t a touch of color anywhere to be found and as much as it should’ve made him freak the fuck out, he’s the definition of relaxed. 

 

His head feels light and his body airy, almost as if he’s floating above the waters and higher then any clouds in the sky. He’s booting up, his HUD feedback tells him as much and he can’t say he remembers ever switching off. Or, at the very least, he hadn’t then. But slowly, and fucking surely, his memory trickles in and places itself snuggly at the fore front of his mind. It makes complete sense as to why he’s here, though how he ended up getting here was another story to get at at another time. Now, he lays and waits for the rest of his functions to start back up. 

 

His eyes drift shut again, hands come into view. He can’t help to mind them, no, he’s way to fucking tired for that. Instead he just goes pliant and lets them do as they wish. He can process the code that is his data from his previous location to further explain his injuries when he has the capabilities to once again do so. 

 

It’s all a distant dream, and it feels as much, as Gavin lets his systems cycle into a deep stasis to right his programs. 

 

______________________________________

 

He’s mad before his eyes even open. 

 

Gavin rips plugs and cable cords out of his skull and lunges off the table. He grabs the first thing he could before his back hits the wall, which isn’t much but an appliance tray. All the tools scatter to the floor and create this loud crash that spikes his nerves even more. 

 

He knows no one here. No face is familiar and he doesn’t fucking know how he got here and who these people were. 

 

If he couldn’t get any answers, he’d brawl his way out if he had to. And they all stared at him, as if he were a wild fucking animal on the loose. They were the ones who put their hands on him first, they just fucking thought he’d be cool with that? Yeah- no, _get fucked._ Gavin feels his anxieties heighten, he hates it here already and he just woke up. What a shitty start to the day. 

 

But then Nines comes in. And he looks as shitty as ever; so much worry on one face, he steps forward like he means to book it but stops half way through, like he thought it was a shit idea. And his eyes hold more things inside them then Gavin’s ever seen before. Nines doesn’t look anywhere but at him, too. Hyper-focused, assured, and pained. 

 

He feels _safe._

 

Because he may not know these people, but he knows Nines. The feeling constricts something inside his chest. Something burns, twists, and claws, and Gavin knows what it is. Hates it for showing its ugly fucking face now, but it can’t be helped. He’s breaking apart at the worst moment and he knows Nines is gonna make it better. Because that's just what he fucking does. And he’s never out of reach. Just like before. Just like he is now. 

 

Standing there, being all considerate and shit, waiting on Gavin to make the move. Because he sees through Gavin’s anger and his resentment, because he wants to fucking help and genuinely take it all away. And Gavin-

 

He’s dizzy, but it’s from something entirely different then his rage. Then his fixed wounds. Then his overwhelming guilt and shame, then the all-consuming-sadness that wallows inside his heart’s regulator. And then, if he wasn’t fucked before, he is now. He so is now. So fucked. Fucking fucked, more fucked then fucked. 

 

“Gavin.” 

 

And shit if that doesn’t do things to him. 

 

Doesn’t make him feel wanted in all the good ways, the ways he’s daydreamed of. It fills him with so much sweetness that he’ll think another repair might be needed. There’s a smile too, just for him, and it’s fucking extravagant. All happy and adoring, shining and bright. It reminds him of Natalie and the sibling love they had going on for a bit, but this type of love feels different. And he’s craving it after so long, of so much bullshit he’s been through. He wants it. _Bad._

 

It’s the clawing feeling. The need to be needed. To be wanted. To have some weight against his chassis and feel something softer then a kick to the side or brick to the head. 

 

He wants Nines. All to himself. Just for a moment, if only a second. These people- they- _they had to leave._ They didn’t have what he needed and they kept looking at him as if he were going to slit a bitch’s throat. 

 

“Nines, I- the-,” His voice sounds worse then he thought. Affected by the needy call for touch. It sounded so fucking whiny and it made him cringe and shrink into himself. Dropping the tray and letting it loudly clatter to the floor. _“- Help.”_

 

And then all the people were gone. Just like that. And Nines, bless his fucking soul, still stood by his side. Closer then across the damn room, but within boundaries. Respecting the lines he knew better then to cross. And Gavin wished he would step right over them, fucking kick them up into dusted nothing. Nines doesn’t touch him, such a fucking sweet bastard. It ate him up inside. 

 

Building like an unforgiving flood, threatening to drown them all inside it’s waters. 

 

Gavin grabs him, hauls him where he needs him and presses himself into those stupidly strong arms and hides his face in that retarded turtleneck. He wraps his arms around the dumb RK’s neck and squeezes, not giving the idiot a chance to back out. Not that it seemed he wanted to, with the way those arms snaked themselves around his frame and pulled him equally as close. He hates this clinginess that he has but he can’t make it go away. If he ignored it, it only came back and so much uglier. So he indulged himself and he wished Nines wouldn’t let him but fucking fuck if he wasn’t happy Nines was. 

 

Gavin doesn’t know how to cope, he knows no habits- not counting just one. He’s desperate to have this intense tidal wave over with. It’s too much and it hurts and he can’t function, let alone think about anything other then this. Them. And now. 

 

So he leans back, doesn’t go far, and presses his lips to the stupid RK’s. Hard. Gavin bites his bottom lip, tugging at it and makes the blunt tips of his nails dig into broad shoulders and it’s so fucking rewarding because Nines accepts his abrasiveness. Delivers it back in a hungry pant and presses himself back just as hard, just as intense. It numbs the feelings Gavin was threatened by, everything except for here and now hazes over and becomes unimportant. This is what he wanted. 

 

The numbness, the pleasure. He needed to focus on something, distract his mind before he worked his processors into a frenzy- he had to do something normal, something he could actually do right. He needed an escape, to forget, just for the moment. 

 

And Nines was perfect. He backed Gavin up and the cold metal side of the table he’d been laid atop pressed into his back, and the pretty bastard leaned Gavin right back over it. Against it, careful and attentive.

 

Power welled inside his chest as he ruined the styled hair, made it messy and tussled. Nines was still strikingly handsome, it just wasn’t fair, especially with that hungry glint to his eyes. It was different then the others he’s seen, like this hunger meant something more then just the sex. Just the release and pleasure. Like he wanted Gavin for more then a single service.

 

It made him start thinking again. 

 

So he kissed Nines again, pushed his tongue inside that fucker’s mouth and tried to push his hips up, trying to meet the other’s. It was electric- the feeling Gavin got, the tongue surging inside his own mouth and establishing a certain dominate air that left his limbs shaky and breath caught. Nines was happy to slot his hips right back down onto Gavin’s, so happy. 

 

It felt good, even better when a strong hand grabbed at his legs and held one. Tender but firm, raised it and guided it to wrap loosely around the taller android’s waist. Gavin was too thrilled by it and complied easily enough, hiking his other leg around a fit middle and squeezing just to tease. Again, Nines’s capable hands slipped low on him and cupped the backs of his thighs, heaving him up and onto the table and stationing the RK right between his legs. 

 

He’d gasped, a bit startled- they were so close. Black turtleneck brushing against the thin material of the one piece suit he wore for the maintenance. Nines’s arms brackened him in- it doesn’t feel crowding at all, in fact, Gavin feels right at home. Tucked safely away inside those strong arms, he can breathe here. He wouldn’t mind never leaving them and just staying forever. Warm, secure, and snug.

 

It’s Nines who stops him from moving in for more. Gavin tries not to be bratty about it even though irritation slinks on his mainframes. “We shouldn’t.”

 

“Why?” He’s a bit snappy, he knows. Makes a deliberate display of tightening his legs around the beautiful bitch between them. 

 

“You’ve just been repaired,” Sweet. The palms that cups Gavin’s cheek is even sweeter, gentler. The pad of a thumb brushing right under his eye, skin smooth to the touch. He shivers. “Your systems need a moment to- “

 

“Don’t care.” He grumbles, tilts his head until that thumb lines the shape of his lips. He stares at Nines, carefully and takes the digit into his mouth. Enticing, suggestive. Nines was so fucking considerate. The fuckwad. He tried not to dwell. Not to feel ashamed. “Don’t you want this too?”

 

“Yes, I do.” Gavin saw something besides the lust pool in those chilly blues, something bright and hot and so fucking sincere. So genuine. The thumb pressed down against his tongue, stilling it from it’s licking. “More then anything, but we mustn’t. Gavin, your calibrations- “

 

“Take it.” He interrupted again. He took the wrist of the RK's, kissed the knuckles of his slender fingers before pushing himself up. His eyes batted, lips hovering an inch above Nines’s, and he saw how the android twitched. Wanting to move but stills by the hands Gavin placed on him, traveling up and down on his broad chest. Feeling, clawing. He raised the fabric of the turtleneck, slipped his fingers under there. He left open-mouthed kisses all along Nine’s ridiculously attractive jaw and bit down on his neck. He heard a sharp groan, so he did it again. 

 

Gavin moved up, licking the shell of the RK’s ear. Nibbling all around the underside of his jaw, raking Nine’s body closer by the edge of his nails. He rolled up the shirt, had it halfway up the android’s body before he whispered as seductive as he could, husky and whispery as his touches lingered. 

 

“Take what you want, Nines, I won’t break.” 

 

Nines looked to be thinking it over, his gaze ever so pleasant, ever so kind. Not dirty, not cold, never devious. Gavin could feel something pang in him. He really was too damn nice and Gavin was beginning to feel his circuits heat up with it, with the weight of his thoughts and implications. He wasn’t about to go into a meltdown, not now, not in front of Nines. 

 

“Either you do something now, or I slam you against this fuckin’ table and ride you myself.” He scowled. 

 

It must’ve been enough to get that bastard out of his thick skull because the android raised an eyebrow, a warm grin spreading slowly across his face. Stunning, Gavin thought, he really was going to die under this overbearing android. “Is that a threat, or a promise?”

 

“Promise.” To prove his point, he yanked at the shirt and was happy that Nines moved his arms to let the thing be taken off. 

 

Now he couldn’t hide and Gavin could see every faux muscle from under synthetic skin and he wouldn’t lie and say the sight didn’t make him a little excited. Of course Nines would look fucking gorgeous in and out of clothes, he’d even bet and say that Nines would look better in the nude then any person or android alive. His model was crazy hot. And Gavin was living for it. 

 

Wait, scratch that. 

 

When Nines grabbed both of his wrists and made them clang- not too hard, but not entirely soft either- above his head he was going to fucking short circuit. The smirk the android flashed him, the way his larger hand squeezed just for pressure and in silent command to leave them there. The area was a little sensitive. Gavin’ll say it, and the short squeeze had him sucking in air to cool himself. The pretty bitch probably had that figured out with the way he slid his hands down the rest of the way. 

 

Gavin felt those hands trace down his biceps and forearms, rub over his pectoral and follow every dip of his metallic ribs. They trailed lower, still, mapping everything out, pinching in places to get another mewl from him. Gavin was so fucking excited and they barely even began, Nines had hardly touched him yet. It just made him all the more eager to get on with things and see what he had in store. 

 

“I need you out of this,” Nines murmured. His voice was honeyed, mild and so tender as his gaze followed his fingers currently running over Gavin’s hips. They pressed along his backside, groping and lifting the junction of his lower half without any of Gavin’s help, and then the GV wiggled himself out of the skin tight suit without any more prompting. 

 

The chill of the lab barely registered to him with his components already working hard but he refused to back out. Alert messages be damned. He wanted this, needed it, and he was going to get what he wanted, _thank you very much._

 

The clothes were dismissed in a heartbeat and Nines dipped down to eat him fucking alive, his tongue and teeth bit and nibbled and licked every inch of his skin. That mouth single handedly devoured any and all self-control Gavin had left and he was gripping hard on his hair, chest heaving, back arching- pressing closer to the blissful feeling and having whimpers leave his mouth. 

 

He felt like he was on fire, only in the best possible way. In the most amazing sense. 

 

He really wasn’t trying to active his self lubricating protocols, but they did without his permission whenever teeth scraped against his nipple. Then the flat stroke of a tongue and Nines clamped around it and sucked, _holy fuck_ was Gavin gonna lose himself before they got to the good part. 

 

It wasn’t his fault. Truly, it wasn’t. Because Nines was too good and caring and Gavin was too desperate. His body was too responsive- wires and codes all twisted inside his processor and the things he should do was becoming garbled. He was doing too much and Nines had been right about the waiting part, but he didn’t want to back out of it.

 

Something slick trickled on the inside of his thighs, his shudder wasn’t the only response to it though, Nines had also played a part when he made an imprint of a bite right on his collarbone. Possessive. Hungry. Oh, fuck Gavin was too into this. 

 

“C-Come on, tin can, hurry up!” He groaned, his panting evening out for the most part the longer he grew used to the treatment. But Nines didn’t really seem in a hurry which made Gavin grumble. 

 

“Eager?” Nines cooed- _fucking cooed_ \- at him. Gavin swears there’s pure sugar with how sweet he says it, how he holds him, touches him, licked him. It’s not possible, physically not possible, but Nines makes that type of shit just happen. And he can’t really question it, can he?

 

Sweetheart, an absolute sweetheart. Nines definitely earns that title. 

 

Only because, despite his taunting tone and toying nature, he moves one of his hands. And he moves it down, trailing against Gavin’s skin slow and sweet until it wedges itself between the model and Nines’s own hips. One of that bastard’s fingers traces up his thigh, collecting the lube that was there and rubbing it over his finger. Then he presses one in, doesn’t ram it into Gavin, doesn’t start pumping like crazy once it’s settled inside him- because _they_ were like that. But Nines- no, he wasn’t. He was better. _So much better._

 

He even pressed his lips to Gavin’s regulator, a smooth, gentle kiss that makes his sensors buzz with delight. He’s moaning and arching both up and down, into that mouth and against the hand inside him. His own hands are trembling with his want, clinging to each other as he struggles to keep them where they are and not tangle themselves in Nines. He wants to be good for the RK, wants to be better, if not for anything else just for right now. 

 

Because this is what he’s good at, as shameful as it is, and he just wants to make Nines feel as good as he makes himself feel. 

 

Gavin bites at his own lip, trying to keep quiet, trying not to be too eager and excited. It’s hard. Nines makes it hard to be silent and it feels like he’s purposely making Gavin squirm and shake. A gasp echoes off the walls when that finger curls, steady in it’s rhythm and presses just right. Just shy of the bundle of wires that’ll make Gavin absolutely go off and he whimpers despite himself. 

 

Nines licks a stripe right over his pump, on the circle decorating his chest and that fucker knows how sensitive a spot it is- it’s entirely illegal how pornographic Gavin probably sounds. He just knows he’s arching back up, now with an erratic breathing simulation to cool down his components, and he must be boneless when Nines adds another finger into the mix. His jaw hangs open in a useless way and his head thumps back on the table. 

 

Pleasure coats his systems, willing himself to be more submissive and lax, providing more lubricant where it isn’t needed. It’s a bit embarrassing, but often incredibly convenient when he needs it to be. Gavin honestly wouldn’t mind if he had to take Nines with only spit or plain dry, because as much as he was infatuated with the android, the other seemed too attentive not to hold some kind of flame for him back. Or maybe that was just wishful thinking. 

 

Gavin really wanted to use his own hands, he fucking itched with it. But Nines had told him not to and that’s exactly what he was going to do. 

 

And it, really felt nice to be obeying out of choice then by force or fear. Gavin probably would be crying or smiling in delirium if he wasn’t focused on something entirely different. Nines gave him a choice, a lot of choices to be frank, and even when Gavin picked the absolute worst ones- he wasn’t reprimanded for them. Nines accepted it, all of it, even this. When he was gross and needy and horny. Nines was just, good, no really good-

 

_“Phck!”_ He still hates that glitch. With his entire being. But he couldn’t help it, never honestly could, because the pretty bitch just had to go and bite just an inch off of his pump. Added another finger to stretch him open and let some weight rest against his body. His skin was warm too, Gavin had to be working him up. He tried not to feel proud of that fact. _“Sh-shit_ Nines.”

 

“Would you like for me to stop?” There’s warmth in his voice, above all of the teasing. Something genuine and true, and it really just occurred to him that this could all stop if he wanted it to. He could say no, tell Nines to back off and go fuck himself and the bastard probably would. 

 

He’d apologize, exactly like he did whenever he did that damn interface. Offer to get lost for probably ever and really, Gavin wouldn’t see him again. In a way, he wanted to test that out. Wanted to see if that would happen or if Nines would just ignore him, as if it was only some dirty talk. Gavin knew that he wouldn’t, was confident in that aspect, but it was tempting. To give a little scare. 

 

“Don’t you fuckin’ dare.” Ultimately, Gavin decided against that. 

 

Because Nines had been looking at him, watching him closely. And Gavin wasn’t disgusted, because this wasn’t a disgusting and dirty type of look. It wasn’t sultry or anything close, but it was open. And Nines had slowed down his movements. The android was staring up at him through a layer of stupidly pretty lashes and his eyes were fucking dazzling in this lighting. He looked good, and sincere, and he was so willing to back out of this at the pen drop of despair if Gavin ever showed any. He was sweet and kind and so attentive, so watchful and careful. Perfect, Nines was really, really, perfect. 

 

“Hurry up,” He barked, the bite behind it entirely lacking.

 

Nines looked ready to argue, his face scrunching up- probably because he was doing that scanning bullshit Gavin had asked about before. In the cell, right when things had seemed better. And sure enough, “Gavin are you sure- “

 

_“Yes,_ I’m sure!” He huffed, pushing himself back on the fingers inside him and relishing in the feeling it gave. “My ea-earlier threat still stands!”

 

“I thought you said it was a promise.”

 

“Nines, we aren’t fuckin’ doing this right now.” 

 

“Fucking is exactly what we’re doing right now.”

 

Gavin groaned. What a coy, smug bastard. 

 

He was about to get up, pulled his arms down and was mid sit up when Nines kissed him again. The same myriad of teeth, tongue, and touch returning and making something tingle down his circuits. As big of a dick as he was, Nines was a good kisser, Gavin would admit it. He was left breathless and pushed right back down, for the third time, onto the cold table top. He felt Nines’s tongue- brash and daring, searching for just the right thing to make Gavin mewl and moan. 

 

He cupped the RK’s jaw, needing to be close, to feel him. Any bit of him, all of him, Gavin would take either one. Whatever Nines would give him. 

 

Gavin felt the smile against Nines’s lips, heard the hum of fans working underneath his chassis and he really had to focus in order to keep his skin from peeling back and revealing his cracked white. Nines probably didn’t want to see that, it would probably just be weird, really weird. Though he sighs against the tongue that presses against his own and shudders when thumbs rub circles on his thighs. 

 

He knows it sounds strange if he were to say it out loud but Nines’s grip feels calculated, smooth, and it screamed tender solace. Gavin wasn’t quite sure how he got that from nothing but an adjusting grip, moving his hips closer and up- guiding his body towards the RK’s larger frame. 

 

Something brushed on his legs, Nines hovered over him, it wasn’t hard to guess what. 

 

He has the courage to look up, look at the android’s face, and he has to swallow shakily at what he sees. Nines had paused again, his hands still dance across Gavin’s skin in comfort, reassurance while his eyes speak volumes. 

 

He really has to give it to the RK because he really does have gorgeous eye. The color compliments him well, gives him this look like he’s god’s angel. By ra9 he just might be, and Gavin would go so far as to say he’s blessed because Nines takes a moment to wait only to check on him. To make sure Gavin wants this, doesn’t want to stop, cement that he had a fucking choice in the matter. It’s fucking heartwarming, kind, and he’s-

 

He’s thinking too much. 

 

Damn the RK. Damn him and his sweetness and his eyes and his lips and- _damn it all._

 

“Do it,” He isn’t sure why he’s whispering it. It’s ridiculous, especially with the way his voice sounds. “Take me.”

 

“If that’s what you want,” Nines has the audacity to lean back down and pepper kisses all over his face. And Gavin’s positive he planned that shit. 

 

“Yeah, now get on with it.” Gavin can’t help but gripe, his regulator pumping way too fast to be considered its normal rhythm. The thirium, the technicians had to have replaced it, roared throughout all his limbs and surged to power all of his functionalities. He was deflective, only because he wasn’t quite sure how to handle it all just yet. 

 

Nines did get on with it, he always listened, and Gavin felt icy anticipation link up his processors. 

 

The android parted his legs just a bit more, pushed into him with a gentle force that Gavin couldn’t help but to whine at. It was slow, methodical, and he felt every inch of the RK slide into him with ease thanks to the lube literally drenching his dick. Gavin really would be simmering in embarrassment if it hadn’t felt as good as it did. He lets Nines know as much, a moan bouncing off the thick walls of the lab and vibrating right back into both their ears. 

 

He rocked his hips back, feeling the sharp intake of breath from Nines as he rested his forehead against the GV’s shoulder, panting and hot. “Gav-Gavin, shouldn’t we- “

 

“Just move, don’t wait.” He said it with a bit more bite then he meant to, so close to what he needed and yet mountains away. A bit softer, he added, “You won’t break me, Nines. Please.”

 

A tender look that Gavin hid from was shot up at him, for someone rumored to be so stoic all the damn time, he was beginning to think people at the department didn’t know the RK. Maybe he was just as alone as Gavin, that thought shouldn’t have been comforting. But it was. Gavin felt a bit dirty for thinking about it.

 

It snapped away, though, when Nines started moving his hips. Dragging his dick out and pressing right back in, it was a precise movement, smooth and fluent. His head fell back, arms snaking around and clawing at Nines’s back to try and get him closer, Gavin needed him close. He needed this, the numbness, the bliss. 

 

“Harder.” He grits out, willing his voice to stay normal and not crackle with static. It’s hard when every sensor hums with pleasure and shocks him into a mounting high. 

 

Nines doesn’t ask anything this time, he just does it. And it’s so perfect, Gavin’s arching off the table and digging his nails into the syth-skin of the android pounding into him. His legs tighten, squeeze, holding onto his RK as his mouth hangs open. He curls a fist into that perfect hair, tugs on it, yanks, conveying just how good Nines makes him feel and hoping it gets across. 

 

“Like th _a-at, just, phck_ , just like that. Good- _Nines, so good.”_ He babbles, eyes shutting tight as he tries to meet the thrusts into him with a roll of his own hips. And Nines, for his credit, is holding him down. Letting the weight of his model stifle Gavin’s squirming and keeping a firm hold on his hips. 

 

He’s amazing with it, with him. Nines has one of Gavin’s hands, magically, because Gavin doesn’t even remember feeling him take it. And Gavin just has the fleeting thought of all of his sweetness, the consideration, the devotion. It’s consuming and burns his database; images and instances, where Nines had given something for him. Whether it’s metaphorical or physically, literal or just through speech. And he wants to give back, he wants Nines to know he’s grateful. 

 

So he works through the shakiness of his hand, now it trembles because he’s getting good dick from a kind motherfucker who gives a real damn, the pleasure zips up into each system he owns and he’s so incoherent as he talks. Words streaming fruitless things the longer and harder Nines drills into him. 

 

He lays it, Nines’s hand, right over the circular regulator. Curls his fingers around it and lets Nines’s nail dig into the edges of it, creep into that seal. It’s walking a dangerously thin line, Gavin knows, he’s so very aware of that fact and forces bad memories down. Or rather- Nines fucks them out. Just like he wanted. So good, _so fucking good._

 

Gavin holds Nines’s hand there, forces it down and lets it lay flat against his chest. A sharp jab to that bundle of wires has him yelping. Hips stuttering inside that fucking stern hand- he’s excited, he wants it to leave marks on him. Against his chassis. Anywhere and everywhere. He welcomes it, welcomes Nines to have his body in any way he desires. 

 

“Beautiful,” He hears the RK mutter. Nuzzling into the top of Gavin’s head, all too fond. Gavin chokes back a sob, drugged on the pure bliss Nines gave to him in each pound into his ass. In each whisper of adoration. 

 

He’s warm and hot all over, tingling, gasping and spasming. Nines keeps going, and it’s so good, feels too wonderful. Gavin knows he isn’t going to last. 

 

“You’re so beautiful, Gavin.” Nines might know he’d call bullshit on that, he punctuates his next words with hard snaps of his hips. Pulling entirely out just to slam right back in. He can’t help to moan, loud and lewd. _“So. Beautiful.”_

 

_“Phck Nines- I- I can’t, shit-,_ “ Gavin has no chance of lasting. Because this is so different but so good. He shouldn’t be so into this but he is, he can’t even be ashamed. Nines doesn’t make him feel ashamed. Not even in the slightest bit. “- _please, please!”_

 

“Shh,” Roses. Gavin has to think of roses. Anything but the soft tone that’s right in his ear. The caresses against every part of him, both hard and tender. He leans his face into the space provided, rocks his body up into the RK, melts right against the table when it presses right back against him. 

 

It’s not smothering, it’s perfect. So very perfect. 

 

“I’ve got you, Gavin. It’s alright.” He nods, mind a jumbled mess as more alerts and alarms blare inside his head. He ignores them all, dismisses every message, and blocks anymore from taking him away from the moment- which was funny. He used to praise those alerts, love them taking his focus off intimate sessions like these. But not this time, ironic. 

 

Nines keeps going, keeps pushing in the right spot, holding him and sucking and biting along his shoulder and collarbone. Mapping his body out with that tongue of his and thoroughly blanketing Gavin on all fronts. It’s nice, so very lovely, his wires twist and churn. Systems riot and blank, subroutines cancel and blare, it’s so chaotic but it feels good. Delightful even. 

 

He’s cumming hard, at first he sucks in air and is entirely quiet- but his body quakes, he’s trembling and he can’t do anything but make a pitchy noise, static making it bend and crack. He feels something press to his temple, kissing him through it, that rocking inside him slowing and evening out. Something sticky paints his insides, he hears Nines grunt and groan. They’re both breathing heavy. Both riding through their highs. 

 

Gavin clings to Nines, and in turn, he gets a gentle touch to his side. Nines pulls out and it draws a keen from him, he misses the feeling, the stretch already, but he doesn’t voice it. Afraid of what might be the reaction to his dirty thoughts but Nines doesn’t leave him after. He stays, wraps Gavin up in his arms and coos pleasantries at him and just holds him. 

 

He isn’t sure when he stopped shaking but the hands coursing through his fucked up hair is heavenly, he can’t focus on anything at all except right here and right now. He likes it. Numb to everything from before. Gavin nuzzles closer, lazily humming to whatever it was Nines kept prattling on about. 

 

“ ‘m gonna,” His voice is frizzy. Like when he first met Nines- those memories are nice, he’s happy he met the stupid RK. “ go into stasis ’n..- ‘nd recalibrate.”

 

“I’ll be here when you wake.” 

 

“Nines?”

 

“Hm.”

 

Gavin sighs, feeling lighter then he’s been in months. “Thanks.”

 

As he’s slowly switching his programs off, he swears he can hear the smile in the way Nines speaks, brushes a hand up his waist, and kisses him just one more time. Sweet bastard. “Of course."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> like I said,,,,,the ratings bumped up,,,,
> 
>  
> 
> Hopefully, you all enjoyed this chapter!! And as I promised!! I made up for all the angst- or at least, I hope I did. If not well,,,,,there's more opportunities! ;)


	12. Milk And Cookies

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The RK has the time to go into the bathroom and set out some towels, the softest ones he owned and added a small rag. Just in case- before he checked back on Gavin. Still asleep, he supposed he had time to kill.

Nines gets to bring Gavin home and he is elated by that fact. 

 

It might be under a form of house arrest issued by Fowler to orchestrate the animosity currently going on at the station. He is not pleased by Perkin’s casualty, the technicians declared that for Gavin’s sensors and well-being he stay somewhere away from that cell and the interrogation room. Tina raises about three hells in her furious rambling, and it’s with her insistence that Gavin either go home with him, or her. 

 

Connor offers but he is shut down very quickly by his beloved lieutenant. Tina informations him that Hank had said something along the lines of: the matter lies out of his hands, and that this wasn’t his battle. 

 

She also said Hank had gotten a bit even with Perkins, she was still furious but the satisfaction and smug expression told him all he needed to know. Nines would also get even with the agent, when he could afford to waste his time on a lesser being. Currently, he was happily devoted to giving Gavin all of his attention. 

 

He had been adamant about fixing the GV's tangled hair, wiping him clean of any remaining thirium and the evidence of their… _intimate reunion._ And Gavin looked entirely too peaceful, enamored in a way, fully repaired and living. Nines felt too enthralled that he was alright, and that he had come right to him for help, and for something else. 

 

In the end of the discussion, Connor had informed him immediately that he was to harbor Gavin. It was because of his model, his series, the fact that he was an android and not human. That he didn’t need to sleep or eat, that he was the top of the line compared to any model. His abilities made him the easy choice, the smart choice- so he was to be the GV’s guardian. 

 

He was giddy with the good news and longed to relay it all back to Connor and fill him in on why the news made him so cheery. But that could come later, because Nines had more important, pressing matters that required his focus. 

 

The technician that had first taken Gavin’s crippled body was the one to hand over a file containing all of his injuries, all the fixes they had made, and they detailed the hidden wounds that Gavin had been struggling with for so long in silence. It explained his earlier limping. It explained a lot, and he had hoped that the LED would change color. 

 

But it hadn’t. It had stayed red through the entirety of his time awake, and it did worry Nines. The theory that the red was only a result of injuries or some broken program was thrown right out the window and he was forced to consider the other option. That Gavin still felt threatened by something, someone, that he still had some kind of mistrust blooming somewhere inside himself. Nines wished he could take it all away and make it better, he really yearned for the ability to do so. But he wasn’t quite sure how, and if it was wanted. 

 

He’d have to get Gavin some new clothes, not that Nines personally owned a large collection of the materials, but he had enough dress shirts and pullovers to wear underneath his CyberLife issued jacket. Gavin could bear with those- though pants could pose as a problem. Nines had longer legs and a much taller stature compared to the compacted GV model. He’d just ask Gavin what he’d like to do and how they should proceed. Though he must admit, Nines rather liked how he looked in the maintenance suit. 

 

It hugged every curve and dip of his figure nicely, outlined the muscles on him and made the rough look something fierce. It’s main color was a dark blue, royal and suppressed in hue but highlighted with a brighter tone of the shade in contrasting lines that zipped around the framework of the android. Helping to define certain features or aspects, little zippers here and there for any and all access for repair of mild to excessive cases. It was made to be something beautiful on the GV. Or so, Nines liked to believe. 

 

He held onto Gavin securely as he walked into the place he had called a home, the very house he had neglected in favor of staying at the DPD with said model. It wasn’t an issue really, because he did not own much of anything. 

 

His home was carpeted with a white plush thing that had seen it’s years, the walls a creamy color to match. The decor he had put up were black curtains with fancy grey embroidering etching along the top, in two clear stripes stationed to the side with one metal clipping that matched the grey as well. He owned a few cups and mugs, mostly for thirium after a wry case and some repairs. A coffee table for paper files he brought home, just for the nostalgic feeling of the previous years and to have a section dedicated to whatever book he decided to pick up. 

 

In all honesty, it was Connor’s additions that might have made the place look more cozy. 

 

His predecessor was the one to pick out the sofa, a set of chairs for company that Nines figured he’d never have, blankets that brought color into the monochrome household. He even left kitchen necessities that neither RK would ever use but was insanely helpful to humans; cooking tools, appliances, bags of sorts, utensils. He even prepared the spare room that Nines had as a guest bed, for others, if he ever decided to have someone over. Which, again, Nines figured he’d never do. 

 

He was a bit grateful for it, now. 

 

He’d have to thank Connor some other time, in a more meaningful way then a simple text. 

 

Not wanting to overstep any boundaries, Nines is careful to set Gavin down on said sofa. He should most likely charge once he’s up- but Nines would prefer if he got cleaned. He hasn’t forgotten about the grease and grim that the GV’s hair was in- foreign excretions that androids cannot produce. He must have had received it from someone else and Nines tries hard not to dwell on all the ways that could’ve happened. He doesn’t think he’ll ask, he can see that it might pose as a sore subject so he decides if Gavin wants to tell him then he will. And if not? It was never within his obligations to know. 

 

The RK has the time to go into the bathroom and set out some towels, the softest ones he owned and added a small rag. Just in case- before he checked back on Gavin. Still asleep, he supposed he had time to kill. 

 

______________________________________

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:12pm)_ _  
Hey, so….remember Perkins today?_

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(10:12pm)_ _  
Of course._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:12pm)_ __  
You think if I wrote a strongly ;) worded letter, they’d get so pissed.  
They’d fire him? 

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:13pm)_ _  
That is plausible._

 

_ **CardiT <3** _   
_(10:13pm)_ _  
You should help me write that letter mr. vocabulary_

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(10:13pm)_ _  
Whatever you need, Officer Chen._

 

_ **CardiT <3** _   
_(10:14pm)_ _  
. . . . ._

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:14pm)_ _  
?_

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:15pm)_ _  
. . . . ._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:16pm)_ _  
Nines._

 

_ **CardiT <3** _   
_(10:18pm)_ _  
CALL ME TINA!!! I swear imma bowl you under the table_

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:18pm)_ _  
Apologies._

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(10:19pm)_ _  
Tina, I seek your forgiveness. Please- accept my apology._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:21pm)_ _  
hmmm…… I’ll think about it._

 

_ **CardiT <3** _   
_(10:24pm)_ _  
Oh!!! OH!!!! Actually terminator!!! How’s Gavin?_

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:24pm)_ _  
Is he okay?_

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:24pm)_ _  
anything happen?_

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:24pm)_ _  
Should I come over? Need any help?_

 

Nines can’t help but to smile despite himself and glimpse over. Gavin’s still resting, perhaps Nines should’ve been a bit gentler in their transgressions. Or gone a bit slower, the GV’s systems had been severely damaged and with the sudden reboot and emotional trauma- it was a recipe for errors and disaster. He’s half surprise Gavin’s internal programming hadn’t shut him down or kicked up some sort of protocol. 

 

He can worry more about it later. 

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:25pm)_ __  
He is fully operational and resting.  
You can, however, come and visit in the morning if you’d like. 

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:25pm)_ _  
Both of you need your rest, and I’m sure he’d be pleased to see you._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:26pm)_ _  
Totally!!! I’ll bring you both something!!_

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:26pm)_ _  
That is unnecessary._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:28pm)_ _  
ThAtS uNnEcrSsaRy._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:29pm)_ _  
You think imma take your no?_

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:29pm)_ _  
I look forward to your visit, and surprise, then._

 

_CardiT <3_   
_(10:29pm)_ _  
That’s what I’m talking about!!_

 

“Nines?”

 

Ah, Gavin. 

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_(10:31pm)_ _  
Please, excuse me. Gavin is awake._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:31pm)_ __  
Tell him I said he’s a bitch, but that I also love him.  
And he’s cool but like in a gross way. 

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(10:32pm)_ _  
Of course._

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:32pm)_ _  
Don’t leave out the ily part._

 

_**RK-87**_  
(10:32pm)  
I won’t. 

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
__(10:33pm)  
Kool, go get’em tiger!  
>;3   
_ read at 10:34pm. _

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(10:39pm)  
bitch._

 

Nines dismisses the text box clouding his HUD and spies Gavin watching him. His LED is still red, and Nines tries not to be disappointed by this fact. He can only strive to make it better and he intends to do just that. “How are you feeling Gavin?”

 

There’s a look in his eyes that Nines can’t entirely decipher- but there’s something soft there, light. Like Gavin can breathe. Though his gaze keeps shifting and coming back to him, looking off and then back. Leaving him to finding him again. And so on. “ ‘m good, fine. Where- uh, where are we?”

 

“Ah, yes, I’m sorry.” He straightens up and extends his hand, palm up to display the official documented reports and release papers. Presenting all the files that pertained to this moment. “The captain declares that you be temporarily relocated. It was then decided that I would be better suited to watch over you. Is that alright with you?”

 

And then the GV gaped at him, as if what he had said was complete and utter nonsense. Which did alarm Nines just a bit, he had a brief moment of panic thinking he overstepped yet again and he was dreading the silence that continued to carry. 

 

“If you’d prefer, Tina would be most jovial to look after you. I am certain I can make arrangements to- "

 

“Stop, stop- Nines. Stop.” His lips thinned into a line and he did as was asked. 

 

He knew his own LED must be cycling yellow- perhaps amber even. As his nerves spiked just a bit when Gavin’s gaze dropped to the carpet. But then he heaved and appeared sheepish, which was a first. Nines has never seen him as anything other then feisty and temperamental. 

 

“I wanna stay-, “ Flustered. That’s what this was. Nines couldn’t help the smile that slipped onto his face. He hoped Gavin didn’t mind, it was just so easy to smile whenever he was around. “-here. With, uh- with you.”

 

Gavin was so pretty when he was bashful. Nines tried to maintain his composure, it was hard. “This is my home, please, make yourself comfortable.”

 

Nines imagined that Gavin was searching up the blueprint to the living space though he had no real way of knowing, the GV’s LED refused to change color no matter the circumstance. Leaving him clueless, for the first time since his deviation. And Nines isn’t entirely sure how he should feel about it but Gavin nods and slouches where he is, finally deciding that he would rather observe the RK as he sits casually. Nines tries to convey his delight, albeit mildly. He has a feeling if he isn’t careful about himself- he might just scare Gavin away. 

 

“Do you want to bathe? I put some fresh towels in the bathroom if you need them. I imagine you might want to get cleaned up after- “ He trails off and clears his throat. Electing to begin again; Nines does not miss the amusement and the slight grin on Gavin’s beautiful face. “-our activities. “

 

And the GV seems to ponder this for only a moment, a glint shining bright inside his eyes and Nines knows the fear of never being able to see them like that ever again. To have that light quelled, prematurely silenced and lost for his viewing pleasure. So he lets Gavin inch forwards, hesitant, before gathering some courage and scrambling over to him. He gets himself seated in the RK’s lap and Nines knows no greater joy. 

 

His hands rest, securely, protective- on a slim waist. It’s so small, petite and he could feel the strength inside Gavin’s core. The muscles that passed under his fingers promising the life that Nines has gotten so attached to. 

 

“Carry me.” And while Gavin is coy and entertaining himself to a degree, Nines can still hear the timid air underlying his voice. Nines wants to pull him all the way- nuzzle his nose under his jaw and soothe his fears because he would do whatever Gavin had asked. Because Gavin was still shy with all his unbridled fury. He was still soft despite his steel tongue and coppery compliments. 

 

Nines let his hands drop and cup, gently pressing his thumbs and rubbing in warning, before he hoisted Gavin up. He was not that heavy at all, and Gavin absolutely purred once a fleeting gasp left the GV’s lips. Legs hooked around him as did capable arms, hands latching in a blind scramble as he began to walk towards the bathroom. 

 

In an act of bravery, Nines let his head tilt and rest alongside Gavin’s- and when he didn’t feel the android pull away or protest, sighed blissfully. Weight was met afterwards as Gavin leaned back into him, it almost made him wish the trek to the tub had taken longer. 

 

He sets Gavin down on the ledge of the white basin, feeling another surge of power through his circuits as he catches the model’s jaw between his fingertips and leans forwards to press a tender kiss to his forehead. Gavin sucks in a quick breath-

 

And Nines does nothing more. Fully content with just that, for having Gavin allow him that, and he kneels to start the water. Adjusting the knobs to make the perfect temperature, Gavin should get nothing less- especially after such an adventurous day. He has to force anger down and keep it in check as he rocks himself onto his heels, watching as the tub filled up. 

 

“I’ll leave you to it.” But something tugs him as he exits, the force retreats as soon as Nines stalls where he stands and looks questioningly towards the source. Who is no other then Gavin himself, glaring at the floor as his knuckles whiten from how tight he’s clinging onto the tub’s edge. “Yes?”

 

“Stay.”

 

Gavin’s voice reminds him of before the initial interface, when they both sat inside the cold cell. It’s wavy, there’s something so fragile and delicate about it. It seems entirely out of place on a tough looking security model like Gavin and he doesn’t like the implications of what it might be hiding. The RK feels the same obligation he did inside the car with Tina, the same protective force that made him yell at Chris and undermine the lieutenant. And while, this time, Gavin hadn’t posed it like a question- the option to say no was there all the same. 

 

Not that Nines would take it. He’d never, ever deny Gavin anything if he had such a say. And he does. 

 

He crouches down, Gavin parts his legs and seems to invite Nines to slide between them. He moves slow, just if Gavin thought better of it and wanted to push him away, but he never did. Hands find their way under the hem of the RK’s turtleneck, exploring and curious without the rush this time. Nines shivers. 

 

_**[Cooling Protocols Activated.]** _

 

“I can close my eyes and turn my back if you would like privacy.” And because he knows Gavin he simply must add. “It is not an issue.”

 

“Or,” And there he goes. Capturing all of Nines’s attention, baiting his processors and singlehandedly filling his databanks with more and more influxes of codes and errors. “You could take off my clothes.”

 

“Or I could do that, yes.” He’s smiling wide because so is Gavin. A beautiful blue staining the tips of his ears and creeping down his neck, the suit once more hides all the fine details Nines now knows lay underneath. 

 

He continues to work his fingers with a practiced ease, never rushing nor speeding in their wake as they peel the fabric off of Gavin’s figure and onto the floor. He is reminded of what transpired just hours before at the lab and he lets that alone consume him before he could remember the cause for the visit. By the time he has the android fully stripped and back in the nude, he helps to ease Gavin into the water and cuts the faucet off. 

 

“You’re gonna let me fuckin’ bathe alone?” 

 

“I thought you might like the space.”

 

“Well, I don’t, you thought wrong fuckface. Get in here.” Really, how was Nines suppose to say no to such a temptation?

 

His clothes get folded and placed to the side before he slides in right behind his model. And it’s too blissful how Gavin leans himself into the RK’s chest, takes his arms and wraps them around himself, letting Nines cradle him as close as he dared. He’s so elated, so happy, too pleased to be able to do such a thing. So, so grateful and he attempts to keep his regulator in proper balance since it kept going off rhythm. Beating too hard and too fast to be labeled efficient. 

 

“Gavin, may I say something?”

 

He hears a grunt in response. 

 

“I’m very glad you’re okay.”

 

This time, when Gavin hides and squawks and barks and looks elsewhere- it’s because he’s flushing completely and so utterly bashful. Cute. Deathly cute. 

______________________________________

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(11:17pm)  
Gavin says Good Night. _

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(12:01am)  
You’re such a liar, what did he really say_

 

** _CardiT <3_ **   
_(12:05am)_  
Night and sweet dreams, both of you.   
Fkn nerds. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the coding no this one is a BITCH but heyyy,,,, on the flip side I hope you guys are cool with some soft fluff
> 
> bc im serving up a lot
> 
>  
> 
> also??? bathing together??? is so underrated in fics??? fuck the showers, you're all coWARDS!!!  
> bonus; bath bombs.


	13. Everything was so sweet, until you tried to kill me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They lay there, for hours, and Nines doesn’t let up on his ministrations. He keeps his hands trained on Gavin’s back, his hair, or simply stroking his face. When there is a moment of clarity, he’ll let his lips leave endless streaks of kisses anywhere he can and any place he’s allowed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **!!!!!!!TRIGGER WARNING;!!!!!!!!**
> 
> Panic attacks, mentions of physical and sexual abuse
> 
>    
> To avoid reading that part, I recommend only reading the first section of this chapter before the break/separation line
> 
> Read past that at your own risk!

His fingers lace through mousy brown hair, washing the suds that cling and hold on to the locks. Nines was not built to be a nanny type of android, a care-giver. Those were more the AX400s and these days, most didn’t stray from their original programing. Occasionally some became athletes of some kind; gymnastics, runners, boxers and trainers- of all ages and all varieties. 

 

Nines was created to be ruthless, stone cold, the perfect machine for any and everyone. Adapting to needs on the fly and improving success rates drastically. He was built to take down deviants and kill his own kind. He was suppose to be CyberLife’s best, better then the rest of the androids, better then his human creators. Better then the mere definition of the word. And he was not to fail. _Ever._ He could only ever succeed. Only could ever bring forth progress when he was called on. 

 

But, simply sitting with a GV200 model- guiding the water to softly lap around the edges of his faux hairline- his legs bracketing shorter, scar dotted ones, he felt at his most optimal. Felt that this was his purpose and nothing else could be such an important priority. It was too funny how things changed, how ironic objects such as himself was to become, and as he kissed the defined edges and marred chassis of Gavin’s back, he found that his objectives laid in the right place. 

 

And then Gavin was as relaxed as Nines has ever seen him. Pride could not even begin to cover what he felt, at being the reason the model was so pleasantly content and mellow. He was glad that Gavin accepted the pampering, happy to see he was finally being taken care of as he always should’ve been.

 

He hadn’t prepared for Gavin’s hand to take his own, curl his trembling digits around Nines’s longer, slender ones. He paused, humming as he pressed a kiss to the temple that crested the stained red light. It pulsed, the RK frowned but chose not to comment about it. Instead he let his free hand glide through the water, tracing a scar that inched around Gavin’s knee and ran jaggedly down his leg. It had a curve that made it coil around- a crush, maybe even a bad splinter. 

 

**_[Do You Wish To Accept Interface?]_ **

**_> Yes._ **  
**_-No._ **

 

Nines swore something inside of him crashed, his fans whirling angrily as the system responsible for his human-mimicry of adrenaline coursed through his wires, it’s purpose was to make him more determined to accomplish his goal, a power to drive him through the coldest of weather and skirt around the sharpest of corners. 

 

“Gavin, you don’t have to do that.” He tried to soothe, already having his thumbs rub and twirl on the knuckles that held scarcely onto his own hand. It squeezed him, then-

 

**_[Do You Wish To Accept Interface?]_ **

**_> Yes._ **  
**_-No._ **

 

“It’s alright, I don’t have to see.”

 

**_[Do You Wish To Accept Interface?]_ **

**_> Yes._ **  
**_-No._ **

 

“Do you want to go through with this?”

 

“Yes.” The way it's whispered makes something twitch inside his mainframe. He has to collect himself before he can even begin to work through the flashes of alarms blaring behind his eyelids. 

 

Nines feels trepidation as he hovers over the options. He takes in a breath and selects ‘Yes.’

 

______________________________________

 

_He feels a sharp tugging, no- a yanking, determined on ridding his scalp of all the hair there. It’s forcing his head up, making it bend at an unnatural angle. One that does not feel comfortable and makes his wires and metallic vertebrae touch. It’s a stinging, stabbing feeling that rockets up his circuits but he cannot move against it. It’s highlighted like a prayer across his- Gavin’s- UI._

_His arms are bound behind his back, barbed wires cutting into his wrists where they dig unpleasantly into his chassis. Another set is tied around his forearms, looping the limbs far too close to be right, the joints ache from their abuse, and skin splits. The last entanglement of the metal is wrapping around his biceps, curling all around his chest. Where the tiny prods sticking into him, little slits appear, like blades slicing meat they made him bleed. It’s so cold and so uncomfortable- so painful, but he can only whimper. Biting at his own lips to silence the sound before it falls onto human ears._

_He’s scattily clothed. Rips and tears adorning what revealing clothes he wears, blood and dirt, all smudging along bits of fabric that also mark up Gavin’s skin. He hates this, he hates the fact that Natalie must watch from the sidelines even more._

_His gaze is cloudy, focusing is so hard when his thirium levels are this low and he can’t get a good look at his captor this way._

_Gavin doesn’t want to see his ugly mug anyway. Nines understand._

_“Be a good lil’ bitch,” They chime. And they keep pulling Gavin's hair, continuously making him raise his head unbearably far back. Up, up, up, until his back has to bend inwards and he’s arching under an invisible line hovered right over him. Nines is appalled. “And take me, yeah?”_

_The hand releases him and Gavin’s body drops, unbalanced and unsteady, onto the floor. The dirty, cold floor. He casts a look to Natalie, showing her his spirit in the way his eyes blaze in rage, in silent hate. He shows his defiance by checking on her, making sure she’s alright before he dares to continue, and tries to soften her fright with a tender look of his own. He’s used to this, he tries to convey, it’s alright. This is nothing, he means to say._

_Gavin has to push himself up by only his good leg, the other one is offline and Nines refused to delve into why, fully focused on the horror taking place before him. Gavin scrambles and shakes as he heaves himself up and onto his knees, the shooting pain churning inside his sensors the longer he puts pressure on the mistreated limbs._

_A hand grabs his face, hauling him forward once more and pressing Gavin’s nose into a solid, pointy belt buckle and it’s kept there. Forced to dig into something hard and disgusting while the discomfort radiated throughout the android’s entire body. “Bite me and I’ll take your fucking legs off again. And this time-“_

_They lean over him, a dark shadow spilling past his small form crumpled onto the floor. The fingers holding him in a vice grip tighten even more, burdening his already spent processors and flaring alerts. Alerts he gladly accepts to block out the implication of what was to come._

_Something sharp hovers over Gavin’s eye, presses and cuts just shy of his optical unit. Nines freezes because Gavin is stock still with fright. Terror. All consuming and never ending, it pillages his systems and corrupts his databanks. There's so much fear that Nines isn’t sure where Gavin’s ends and his begins. It’s horrible, not right, and the stabbing that’s shooting through every wire is enough to make even him go mad._

_Gavin is dizzy, so very scared, but spiteful._

_“-I’ll take your fucking eyes for good.”_

_He shivers, the hand is gone and he is free to slowly back up. He has to use his mouth to undo the zipper and tug the belt off, and he tries to fight the red, fiery shame that conceives a greater shade of guilt and loathing._

_He does his job, as he was ordered to. Does it without complaint and lets this human unhinge his jaw to unacceptable volumes, lets them continue to yank and tug at his hair. Gavin didn’t know his scalp could be so sore but there was always a pain for everything, always a place to experiment with. Nines understands why Gavin had looked so grimy when they first met, why his hair shined with grease and sweat that never belonged to him._

_That human had the audacity to spit in Gavin’s face after he reached his orgasm, spilling down his throat and even spit again inside his parted lips. They laughed, hollered, and hooted. Discrediting the android before him, dehumanizing it, degrading Gavin unfairly and unjustly._

_Afterwards, the model is dragged by the harshest hand he’s ever known and thrown against a table. It’s an old one but it’s too chilling, his sensors ice over, his body shakes and they beat him for the action he has no control over. Command and threaten him until Gavin turned off vital functions just to be obedient. Chains wrap around the barbed wire, making it run deeper into him, cut him more. He sucks in a yelp, holds it inside his chest, the fear heightening when they bound his feet._

_For a moment Gavin is certain he will loose his leg, that they’ll cut into his face again and rip his optical unit right from it’s socket another time. It might be his turn to be tortured and turned into what they called ‘art’, what they labeled as a ‘message’ to send to the other people. To Markus. To President Warren. To the traitor crafted right from CyberLife’s own hands and turned rogue. And he feels an overbearing need to scream. To cry._

_Something clamps, as cold as the arctic, around his neck. Filthy hands scratch at him, clawing and tearing up anything it could as it banged around for his hatch. Once his neck port was opened, he was plugged into and connected to the machine station at his right, it now hooked up to him. It monitors, reports- they intend to repair him. Or some form of hack job of it while also containing him. Keeping him in check._

_Across from him, they grab at Natalie. He twists and clenches his already throbbing jaw when the wires only go harder against his plating._

_It occurred to him that they wanted him to watch._

_Watching wasn’t a good thing. It was never, ever a fucking good thing. He panics. And struggles and fights and yells._

_He has to watch Natalie die._

______________________________________

 

Gavin isn’t looking at him anymore. Sometime throughout the exchange he turns around in the RK’s arms and makes himself comfortable on his lap yet again. Nines hadn’t minded and when the interface concludes at that, his hand doesn’t let go of Nines’. So the RK keeps it there. 

 

There’s tears trailing down Gavin’s face, anger is still evident there but a deep rooted sadness that Nines has no clue of how to solve. His preconstructions attempt to help him in the endeavor but he is quickly overwhelmed by all of the low percents that report back to him. Nines doesn’t like his odds, doesn’t like how low they all appear to be, but any number is better then a zero. So he takes a chance. 

 

“You never have to share anything with me, you do not have to relive any of it.” Nines brings his hand up, cupping Gavin’s cheek after a moment’s pause and swiping at the tears that fall from his eyes. He watches the model’s face scrunch up, as if he’s fighting against something inside of his mind, but he never pulls away. Only tilts his way into it, pins it there by his other hand. 

 

Gavin hasn’t been so touchy before and it’s a bit worrying. As much as Nines loves to feel his skin against his chassis, have the connection bringing them undeniably closer, he also knows that the silent obsession cannot outweigh his compassion. He must become useful for the android before him, he has to bring Gavin his peace- his _justice._ Nines turns to his will to make Gavin happy again, to see his gorgeous smile once again, to even hear his beautiful laughter. 

 

“I- I want to.” Gavin croaks, pathetic and sullen. There’s so much agony to his tone, Nines cannot stand to bare it. He sits up, pressing a kiss to the GV’s forehead and the sniff sounds like an explosive in his ear. Gavin’s hand turns desperate as it holds his own, shaky while he continues. “I- I just- you _needed_ to- to know. You deserved to- I mean- I _owe_ you and all and-“

 

“Gavin.” Nines interrupts. Stern, but spoken softly enough to be nonthreatening. He feels the android tense, the trembling his body undergoes and the frightened clinging- like Nines would take all of his touches away. Like Nines would leave him if he didn’t hold on tight enough.”You owe me nothing. You deserve this- good things. You are entitled to happiness and everything the light brings forth. You can be at peace, with yourself, and with the world around you. Let yourself rest. Let yourself breathe.”

 

They’re both silent for a few moments, Gavin’s body is too still. His lip quivers, his shoulders hunch and Nines feels the blunt nails clawing to keep their hold on his hands while it shakes uncontrollably. Fresh tears spill, lots of them, unyielding, like a tidal wave ever so flowing and it occurs to him that this might be the first time Gavin’s been allowed to cry. Felt safe enough to- his pump pangs in it’s hallow shell, immensely saddened by the notion. Gavin cowers, his body now being racked with wave after wave of sobs. He’s sucking in breath like he needs it to live, hiding his face under Nines’s chin and wailing with purpose. With _grief._ He’s mourning so intensely and Nines isn’t sure if he starts screaming in his fit or if Nines is too tuned up to every sound he makes. 

 

Gavin holds onto the RK like he’s a lifeline, and Nines feels as if that would be an accurate depiction. Because Gavin has no one else- doesn’t trust anything else. “I-I fuckin’ _mi-miss her_ so damn much, Nines.”

 

“I know you do, I’m here.” Nines shushes, taking his arm and brushing it against Gavin’s spine. Rubbing between the shoulder blades there, ignoring the scars he now knows the story behind. “I’m here.”

 

Gavin cries harder. _“She-she didn’t deserve it!”_

 

“I know she didn’t. And neither did you.” He traces patterns onto the model’s olive complexion, letting his chin rest atop the android’s head. He noses into his clean hair, humming. “Breathe, in and out. Follow my simulation.”

 

“I watched it- they, ma _-they made me watch her die.”_

 

Nines unplugs the drain and lets the water, turning cold, slowly leave the tub. Gavin doesn’t seem to notice, his shaking increases when Nines stretches forward. He cements that he isn’t leaving by a strict hold around the model’s waist, easing the towel onto his shoulder and politely drying him off. “You’re far away from them now, you cannot be hurt.”

 

“They tortured her.” The GV beats a fist against the RK’s chest, not at all hard- Nines knows he is capable of worse. It’s a hallow effect, implanting more pain at the voice of sorrow that sings it to him. “ -they _phckin’ tortured her in front of me.”_

 

“Natalie can’t suffer anymore, she is no longer in any pain. “ He wraps Gavin up and stands, exiting the tub. 

 

There’s only one towel and Nines will have to make sure nothing molds as he walks towards the bedroom, water droplets spiraling from his figure the more steps he takes. All throughout his trek, he continues to try and ground the smaller android to the present, always having some form of skin to skin touch, a firm hold somewhere. Gavin is inconsolable in the moment, Nines figures this quickly, and just accepts the despair. He lets Gavin mourn. 

 

 _“I’m sorry, I’m fucking sorry-“_ He babbles once Nines lets him go on the edge of the bed. 

 

He leaves, only to get them both a change of clothes. Bringing them back, he kneels at Gavin’s feet and presses a kiss to his knee. Nines can make out a scar- the one he had spotted earlier but thinks better of asking about it. Instead he gingerly lets the pair of black boxers slide up Gavin’s legs and pulls them up high on his waist else they fall. Then he pulls the button up around the model’s shoulders, folding his arms into the sleeves and buttoning the blouse all the way up. He makes quick work of dressing himself, pulling Gavin to him, and easing them both under clean sheets. 

 

Gavin’s sobs are less hectic, more controlled, but still holding all the power of his mistreatment. Nines presses his lips to the other’s, shushing him, cooing normalities. “You have nothing to be sorry over. Nothing you do requires an apology.”

 

“I’m _sorry,”_ Gavin mutters regardless. Nines chooses not to hold it against him. Oppression isn’t something fixed in a day nor does he expect such results. 

 

They lay there, for hours, and Nines doesn’t let up on his ministrations. He keeps his hands trained on Gavin’s back, his hair, or simply stroking his face. When there is a moment of clarity, he’ll let his lips leave endless streaks of kisses anywhere he can and any place he’s allowed. 

 

The minutes pass by, like small eternities, and he feels Gavin’s trembling lessen. He turns still, shifts to be close, and hides. He tries to become invisible to a cruel world by burrowing himself under Nines’s larger frame, and the RK can only hope that this is enough and that it will work and bring some form of comfort. Nine is not good at dealing with emotions, especially panic attacks or breakdowns but he’s trying. And he will always try when Gavin is concerned. He wants to be better. For him, if no one else. He wants Gavin to know that and to see it- he wants Gavin to be _proud_ of him. 

 

“We both saw her, ya know. Back there. Tina and Lewis.” The GV mumbles, his voice is faint and weak from the heavy strain that was previously put onto it. “But not you, I think….I think Nat would’ve really liked you.”

 

“It would’ve been my pleasure to meet her.” Nines kisses Gavin’s temple. 

 

“I think Nat would’ve liked Tina too.” 

 

“She wanted me to tell you a few things.” When Gavin says nothing he carries on. “She wishes you a good night and that she loves you."

 

“Tell-,” Gavin swallows. An unneeded action but something so overly human, Nines smiles. “-tell 'er I said the same back.”

 

“Of course, but please, you should charge. I will be here the entire night, if you’ll have me.”

 

Nines feels something featherlight and tender tickle his throat, and his smile only widens when he realizes Gavin is pressing his own kisses to him. “If I wake up and you’re gone, I’m kickin’ your ass.”

 

And Nines is just too happy to snuggle further under the covers and whisper sweet nothings to Gavin as he powers down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> of course, we can't have too much mindless fluff without a bit of angst and backstory insight!!!
> 
>  
> 
> If anyone has gotten the references in the titles I've been making, I'll love you forever 
> 
>  
> 
> also!!! Happy Mardi Gras!!!! To any and every!!! who celebrate!!!!! time to drink crown and beer like its water!!!!!


	14. An eye for an eye

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Have a lovely day.”
> 
>  
> 
> And without waiting for anything else, Nines straightened out his uniform. And left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> pink LEDs??? more likely then you think
> 
> den writing fluff and spicey to make up for cliffhangers and angst??? realistic.

Nine rouses from his own stasis to find that Gavin is at his peak functionality. The joy he feels is indescribable, the closeness that they have obtained threatens to shut him down again and make him late to his proceedings. He does not wish to leave Gavin alone, feels a certain type of dread inside his units at the prospect of such an act, that he feels like a human lounging in bed for so long. He supposes he must keep his promise to the model from last night- after all he wouldn’t like to undergo repairs because he was rushing an objective. 

 

And Nines feels as if Gavin meant every word about that little threat. 

 

Begrudgingly, he unlaced his arms from around Gavin and sighed into the quiet air. How strange, previously he would’ve been out the door the minute the sun had risen to arrive to work and carry on with his tasks, but now? Now, he finds that work could wait. That it wasn’t that important anymore. That nothing else mattered or was such a priority as the android in his own bed sleeping peacefully beside him. He dared to sigh again, not ungrateful for the small ‘dilemma’ but finding a beautiful irony to it. 

 

He pressed a kiss to Gavin’s LED, letting his fingers correct the stray strands that fell onto his face. Nines softly whispered his name, letting his hand stroke the side of the model’s cheek. 

 

Once he saw those beautiful greens he couldn’t help to smile, wide and infectious, and it was too absurd how precious Gavin looked as he flushed and attempted to turn away. Nines chuckled, a low sound he wasn’t aware he could make, and couldn’t stop himself from kissing Gavin again- on the expanse of his forehead. 

 

“Good morning, did you rest well?” He sits himself on the edge of the bed, taking his hands away to respectfully fold them into his lap and wait. Even if Gavin had been more touchy lately, he wouldn’t want to take the chance to startle the other. 

 

“ ‘m fine.” Gavin muttered, almost pouty in it’s sluggish draw. Precious. Too precious. 

 

“I’m happy to hear.” Nines lets Gavin gripe and complain before clearing his throat and continuing. “I’m afraid I must leave you for a moment. I’ll return very soon, but I must update the current file containing your case. It won’t take long.”

 

Gavin looked taken aback, only for a second before it was schooled into indifference. He appeared to be concentrating, mulling something over in his mind. “How do you know I won’t run the second you’re gone?”

 

“I can only ask that you do not.” And the RK cannot help but to follow the preconstruction his own programming has set. He takes Gavin’s jaw between his fingers, letting his hand gently stroke the structure of his sharp jaw before he swooped down to steal a kiss. “Please, do not run.”

 

“Okay,” Gavin whispers between their lips. His eyes fall half mast and he’s staring at the close space that stand before them both. His LED spins, twirling and twinkling- only it isn’t red this time. It’s yellow, the first color that Nines has ever seen before on it. “I won’t run away."

 

Nines really can’t help himself, he should try better to control his actions. He should. But he couldn’t, not right now. Not when he stared at Gavin and saw growth and progress, saw determination and stubborn will, a fire that refused to go out no matter the level of oppression. 

 

He kissed Gavin again, slow and sweet. He was too happy when the model responded to it, licking his bottom lip and pulling Nines back in- close, so very close. A sigh, coming from honestly either of the two, Nines wasn’t sure but it escaped and got caught between them. 

 

The RK tried to stifle his pant when a tongue met his own, licking into his mouth and blasting strings of analysis back into his processor, information spilling across his vision and naming chemicals he traced. Formulas and leftover thirium passing like a film over his sensors. It was hard to keep a cap on, his mouth and analysis functions were entirely too sensitive- most likely the most responsive and delicate thing on him. It occurs to him that he should be getting dressed, preparing himself for work and letting Gavin carry on with his own business. That’s what he should be doing, what his program tried to coax him to do. 

 

But then Gavin rolled him onto his back. The model pushed, a hand splaying across Nines’s chest and he followed that coaxing instead. Gavin’s hands were on him again, feeling and ghosting over him- up, up, up before switching to trailing down. Slow and smooth, light and just putting a bit of pressure. 

 

Legs swung over his hips and a weight settled down on him, he moved and grinded against the android. Nines jerked into the feeling, a bit surprised at how untamed Gavin was and the insistent tongue lapping inside his reactive palette. Gavin just had to be the death of him- he moaned, unabashed and loud. 

 

He heard the model chuckle softly, felt the grin against his lips. He almost protested whenever that wonderful feeling left his mouth as Gavin leaned back to watch his expression, spurred on by the sound no doubt, and grinding down hard. Again. Leaving Nines swallowing and gasping, too unused to the pleasure, but never wanting to give it up. 

 

“Is this- is this okay?”

 

Gavin snorted, a playful roll to his eyes. His hips never faltered and Nines was impressed. “I got on your dick, robocop. I should be asking that.”

 

“You could never do anything to repulse me.” With permission, Nines let his hands travel down to hold the model’s waist. His eyes dropped with them and focused on how fluently Gavin moved. How amazing it felt and how aroused he was getting so fast. “But- w-why the sudden interest?”

 

The other android sat back, palmed Nines’s bulge through his boxers and stared at his clothed cock. He hadn't felt scrutinized but there was a small bundle of nerves instilling something close to anxiety inside his circuits. A need for approval, to impress. 

 

“I want to make you feel good, asshole.” Gavin shifted, hooking his fingers and slipping down his waistband until it bunched around the RK’s thighs. He couldn’t help the grunt when a hand wrapped around his dick and pumped, warm and calloused and so deliciously tight. 

 

“You always make me feel good, Gavin.”

 

And then the model cursed, looking at his cock rather then holding his eyes. Nines didn’t have time to comment on it, he felt Gavin’s thumb trace up his dick and rub over the slit, effectively collecting the fluid that gathered at the head. He almost didn’t catch what Gavin mumbled, bashful, he only heard the last bit. “-ep sayin' sweet shit like that, phck..”

 

Naturally, his programming attempted to make a simulation of the conversation and supply the most logical dialogue- but Gavin seemed to know exactly how to crash that. His subroutines lighting up with sparks as his sensors alerted him to the stimuli. 

 

The model shifted himself even further down, resting on his legs and leaning forwards. Nines shuddered, deep and frill when Gavin’s tongue licked a long stripe up his cock and he pressed a wet kiss to the tip. It shouldn’t have made him groan, but he had to force his hips to still and not buck up. It was hard. Kept gaining difficulty as Gavin lapped at him again, inching along veins made only to further integrate with humanity. His fingers twitched. 

 

“Ga-Gavin, you don’t have to do- “ His voice tampered off into a lewd moan. Nines would argue that it wasn’t his fault, because Gavin was so precise and so good. So perfect. 

 

The GV had taken him inside his mouth, letting his tongue lie flat while he swallowed down inch for inch. Nines could accurately tell when he hit the back of Gavin’s throat, the little vibrated hum, the tight ring of muscle, the push onwards-

 

He had to clutch at the sheets below him, hissing in breaths like he needed them. Multiple fans kicked on, working to cool down his body temperature before it reached too high. He couldn’t keep himself contained and resorted to biting his own lip to stop from making too much noise. Gavin didn’t even hesitate as he took Nines in- _all of Nines._ Kept going until he was deepthroating the RK, had his nose touching the android’s pelvis. He stayed there while systems crashed and Nines's wires twisted and became frazzled. Frayed. 

 

It felt so good. Gavin’s mouth and throat was so wet and warm, Nines’s jaw fell open as he panted, mewled. He so desperately wanted to buck and roll his hips but he refrained. That- That wasn’t really polite, wasn’t exactly right. He didn’t want to be like Gavin’s suppressors, he didn’t want to be another one of those men to the model. 

 

Gavin came up, just as slow- and Nines felt every drag of his hot tongue, especially when it swirled around his head before popping off. Then Gavin dared to look up, his pupils blown in response to the sexual nature they both found themselves in. The green seemed to devour up any grey inside his eyes and Nines took the second to compose himself and admire. 

 

“I don’t gotta, you’re right, but I wanna.” And if there’s no sweeter ring to his voice, no insane kind titter to it. The realism, the sincerity, the linguistic beauty that Nines can store forever inside his memory of Gavin’s voice. 

 

Dumbstruck, Nines nods. Gavin flashes a flamboyant smile, mouths a hickey- or the equivalent- on his abdomen and goes down again. Taking Nines in his entirety, not sparing a second as he sinks down all the way. Again, he stays. And again Nines has to try and be quieter, reserved. But it’s difficult. 

 

Gavin heaves up, drops back down, goes back up. His tongue swirls, rubs, licks him everywhere- Nines cries softly into his own balled fist. He has to keep it up, away. Pleasure makes his LED dye a pink hue. A new addition the RK wasn’t even aware he had, and when he glanced down oh thank ra9-

 

Gavin had it too. 

 

It wasn’t red; it was pink and bright, shining so strongly, pulsing and circling as he processed. As his head bobbed up and down. On a harder suck, Nines watched so mesmerized as it burned a lighter shade and delved into a harder, more saturated pigment. He whimpers and moans, helpless under the skillful flick of a hand that rubs at his cock and the lips that part to take him in. 

 

It’s so sinfully good, so tasteful, feels so right Nines simply couldn’t hold on. 

 

Gavin reaches forward, pries Nines’s entangled fist from the grip he assaulted the sheets with. He lets Gavin have it, lets him move it wherever he wants. 

 

It’s atop the GV’s head, bundled in mousy brown hair. Gavin peers up at him through his lashes, taking Nines deep in his throat again and hums. The sensation makes him glitch, a static crackle leaving his own lips as his hands twitches and spasms. 

 

As if in encouragement, Gavin hums again. Harder, louder. Nines shivers, his fans picking up speed as his pump beats out of its modulated rhythm. 

 

With a shaky hand, Nines lets his fingers tangle in the model’s hair, pushes him up just a bit. Slow and cautious- Gavin doesn’t interject. He lets the RK do as he pleased so Nines eases him back down his cock. Again, he was met with no oppositions. 

 

His body trembles, alarms flash that he is getting too hot. That he needs to cool down and cease any actives enticing this reaction from him but Nines would be so angry if he stopped now. His hips sputtered, rocking up into that wet heat and his hands jerking it back down onto him. 

 

He felt Gavin’s thumbs rubbing at the side of his thighs, gentle and tender. He keened, losing the precision in his movements and becoming sloppy. He was breathing hard and his hips bucked erratically, the soft touch only adding to his suddenly needy search for release. 

 

“Gavin, please I-,” Nines mewls. Body succumbing to an unfathomable wave of blissful pleasure slinking up his mainframe. “I’m gonna cum, close- _so close- !”_

 

The model bobs harder, sucks him longer and with more vigor and Nines is so powerless in that moment. His hips rock, uncoordinated and lacky- the notions are all too human, to contradictory. Shying away but thrusting forwards in search of the warmth. 

 

He cannot help it, and his hands make a resolute fist when he meets his climax. A gasp and a large intake of air- slack jawed and gaping as he spills his own ejaculate down Gavin’s throat. His body rolls in once, twice, a third and final time and the model certainly doesn’t help- moving along with him before popping off. 

 

The fluid shows just briefly over Gavin’s tongue before he swallows it- Nines has a moment of pure desire as he stares and watches. 

 

He’s still breathing heavy, his chest and limbs still shaky from his high. Gavin moves up, pressing his lips in different places- the sensation is overwhelming to Nine’s overworked sensors but god, does he find it too thrilling to quit. There’s bites, nibbles, lapping over of a tongue, teeth scraping teasingly over his stomach and chest. All the way up to his jaw, to his cheek and nose. 

 

“You’re breathtaking,” Nines whispers. Hushed and quiet, his voice a bit gone with it’s static crackle. Gavin flinches and Nines is quick to soothe it by his own tender touches, his own featherlight kisses. 

 

“Shuddup and get your ass in gear, work, ‘member?” But Nines sees the clear blue his LED changes to. Though, the RK thinks better then to comment on it and risk turning it back to red. 

 

“I will miss you.” And Nines means it, he hopes he comes across as genuine as he feels. Hopes it isn’t too much. 

 

Gavin just slides off of him, pushing and pulls until Nines is standing and coaxes him to the bathroom to change and fix himself. “Then hurry the fuck back, dumbass.”

 

Nines gets himself ready for his visit to the DPD, trying to look as presentable as he can. His reflection stares back at him and he is very pleased to see it looks as happy as he feels. His expression, though rough, seemed to be improving. He simply must make it up to Gavin later.

______________________________________

 

The RK strolls into the department. He lets the expressionless facade wash over his systems and turns back into the stoic android he was believed to be. His discomfort at being here was new and he knew it was something he’d have to sort out. Eventually. His own affairs, however personal and internal, could wait. Something bigger was at play. 

 

As his footsteps echoed across the bullpen, he was a bit disappointed to find that Connor and the Lieutenant were currently deployed. He wasn’t sure why he wanted to seek out Connor’s presence but he supposes that was another quirk of his deviancy. Something he still didn’t understand. He checked up on the most recent security footage just to quickly get him into the loop of what transpired after he had left. 

 

As it turns out; Fowler was quite the force to be reckoned with. 

 

His angered rambling was not muffled at all by the glass doorway slid into place. He was conducting some sort of briefing, or more possibly, a disciplinary transaction issued from the dire event that happened fresh inside the station. He seemed to be talking to what looked to be majority of the detectives, a few of the officers who so happened to be on call. Tina was there, stood confidently beside him. Her gaze was cold- the harshest he’s ever seen. He’d say he could use it as a reference for whenever he needed to call upon something sinister and dark. 

 

Her voice was stern, cracking like ice over his circuits with her deadpanned speech as she gestured to the projected photos and records behind her. Nines had an idea of what was going on- but he couldn’t stay to confirm it. 

 

Gavin was waiting for him at home. He had to get back there, as soon as he could. 

 

Every step echoed, or was that just Nines’s own desperation sewn onto a mundane sound? He forced himself to remain levelheaded, steeled his resolve and marched right up to his desk. His small little plants greeted him, the little succulents providing a nice peace to the shitstorm he was currently facing. 

 

How nice it would be, to just be a plant. Let someone care for you, be so entirely fond- not a worry in the world besides the oxygen intake and transpiration levels. He might be envious; it was so absurd that the RK forced himself to shut down the mere thoughts. 

 

But they needed to be monitored while he took a small leave. Briefly, he paused to send a message to his predecessor. 

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_ (8:08am) _   
_Take care of my succulents, please._   
_I will not be as attentive and present._

 

** _Connor_ **   
_ (8:08am) _   
_You steal my plants, and then abandon_   
_them?_

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_ (8:08am) _   
_Try and be professional, eights._

 

** _Connor_ **   
_ (8:09am) _   
_I was far more professional before_   
_you ever were, baby brother!_

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_ (8:09am) _   
_And yet, you act like this._

 

** _Connor_ **   
_ (8:09am) _   
_I hope you don’t speak to your plants_   
_this way, I’m appalled._

 

** _RK-87_ **   
_ (8:10am) _   
_You’ll get over it._

 

** _Connor_ **   
_ (8:10am) _   
_They’ll like me best._

 

Nines smiles, an easy and genuine one. Different from what he’s used to, the ones that beamed across his face whenever he was by Gavin. As silly as Connor pretended to be, he was a reliable source for his current needs. 

 

Feeling a bit lighter by the banter, the teasing, the exchange of pleasantries he had found himself missing in the entirety of this case- Nines sends a final message back and continues with his work. 

 

The interface to a measly terminal does not have the same euphoric feeling as it does with Gavin- another disappointment he tries not to entertain the idea of. But the files, documents, footage, and reports are instantly stored onto a folder labeled as ‘200HMC-US’ inside of the RK’s databanks. That is all that he came for, that was all that he needed- without wasting anymore time, Nines turned to leave. 

 

It was a happening solely by chance. 

 

Something bumps into his shoulder, a brushing of sorts, followed by a hefty gruff groan and a familiar ebbing of cursed slurs. Nines turns to see who had run into _him-_ yes, they were at fault. Nines doesn’t make such careless mistakes- and finds none other then the source of his grievings. The one who turned all of his objectives to murderous fits of temperament, made all subroutines flip back to the destructive settings he had been originally programed to obtain. 

 

Richard Perkins, glaring up at him with a few facial bandages- courtesy of Gavin- held a cup of freshly brewed coffee. He looked to have been interrupted in some kind of reading and once Nines’s optical units swept over it, he could tell it was an unflattering report of what had happened. What Perkins had caused, the downfall of something that had been so perfect for the android now in tatters because of masculine ego and arrogance. 

 

He felt the anger, the rage, all fiery and hot. His temperature rose drastically and alerts screamed strands of code at him. Nines cleared them all, ignored any more that popped into his sights. 

 

_“Watch it-_ got made to be superior and look at ya! Barely functional. Damn.” 

 

“Agent,” Nines gave an inhuman smile. One that was too robotic, too forced, all the sweetness inside his social regulations programming attempting to seem kind- but the RK knew he was far off. He did it to put Perkins on edge, to instill a shred of fear. And it worked just as cleanly as he thought it would. “Do you have a moment to spare? There’s something important I simply must go over with you.”

 

“No, actually. I don’t. Now-, ” He tried to leave. Oh, what a fool. Nines grabbed his arm and let his fingers dig unkindly into the skin. “- the fuck, android! What’s your fuckin damage?”

 

“It seems you have a second in your _so_ overcrowded schedule. You’re too kind to make room for a measly bot such as myself.” He chirped, letting his voice carry on a note. He copied Tina’s tone, sing-song and airy light. He saw mistrust blooming on Perkins expression but before he had the chance to speak, Nines whisked him away. 

 

If anyone looked their way, Nines fixed them with a warning stare. He was to go undisturbed, he made sure that was crystal clear. The fellow androids who stayed that night or worked understood, he felt a swell of gratitude for them and offered his thanks before stepping out into the cold winds of Detroit. The ice crackled under his heavy steps and almost covered up the shouts from the human behind him. 

 

“-me go, what’re you? Broken!? Your wires fucking twisted or are you that fucking stup-“ 

 

Nines slammed him into the back wall, let his head crash against the bricks with the force he used to pin the human there. His hands fisted into that disgusting trench coat and he raised the man up, letting him struggle to remain balanced on his tiptoes- feet slipping on the ice and snow below. 

 

“Agent Richard Perkins. Your record consists of undoubtable reliability in all of your case works, but a severe lack of trust by your fellow colleagues. A nickname, The Jackal, because of your inane ability to have human decency and a perturbed decline in the structure of common sense.”

 

“What the fuck is your deal!?” Perkins raises his hands, trying to pry Nines off of him. It’s a petty attempt, really. 

 

Nines, with the sweetest smile he could muster while looking at such filth, rears the human’s body back and slams him against the wall once more. There’s a satisfying thunk by his skull hitting the bricks. 

 

“Are you aware of how easy it is to corrupt a human's morals?” He questions, staring down coldly at the short excuse of an agent. “Not that you have much, if any."

 

“Get your fucking hands off me!” 

 

“Your reputation is amenable, anyone would be impressed by it.” The RK takes his hand and grabs at the human’s jaw. Iron grip making him wince and sputter in protest. “But if they were to find out it was weaved through tangent _lies_ and misgivings, I’m afraid to wonder if your job would keep you.”

 

This seems to catch his attention. He stops squirming as hard, eyes narrowing suspiciously at the android who holds him trapped, his breathing is erratic. 

 

_**[Perkins Is Afraid.]** _

 

Good, Nines cannot help but to think. As he should be. 

 

“A solitary nature with an immense hateful exterior extended to all colleagues. Files are easily hacked, easily reworded and changed. Evidence is too laughably easy to fake if you possess the proper slight of hand and connections. Isn’t that right, Agent?”

 

Perkins hardens his gaze, swallows thickly. He cares for his job, most likely the only thing going for him, Nines suspects. All the better. 

 

“What do you want, trash heap.”

 

“Now, now, it is highly unprofessional for name calling.” His hands tightens, tilting Perkins’ chin up and forcing him to look directly into Nines' eye. “I believe you owe me an apology.”

 

“Get fucked.”

 

Nines raises a brow. The human, however, doesn’t waver. He roughly drops Perkins, lets him gasp and feel freed for the moment he is allowed before Nines takes his arm and turns him. It’s too easy getting the front of the human to mesh against the wall and at the angle of how the RK holds his arm, Nines is grossly aware of how painful it must be. 

 

“Sorry! Fuc- _Sorry! Okay,_ cool it!”

 

“Better.” Nines lessens his grip but stays close. “You’re going to fix your report, remain out of my case, and will not bother my suspect ever again. Am I clear?”

 

“What? You must be joking.” Nines glares, forces his arm to go higher- draws it tighter to the backside of the agent’s form. “Ow, ow- _fuck-_ cut it out!”

 

“There’s a 34% chance your arm will not break with your current flailing. But the chances of you going unharmed dwindle by the second the longer you test my patience.”

 

“Shit, alright! I get it! Stay out, steer clear, shit jesus- I got it! Stop!” 

 

The RK relents. Just barely, and forms a clenched ball full of the agent’s hair. He rears his head back and towers over him as he witnessed the human do to Gavin. His breath, a simulated husky sound, ghosts over the agent’s ear. He is not at all bothered by the spike in heart rate, the increased blood pressure, the chemical imbalances. 

 

“Androids stick to androids when dimwitted humans such as yourself get too high on their horse. Many people would like to see you fail, Perkins, and would cheer at your downfall. Speak of this, report this- or what happened last night as anyone’s fault but your own- and I will see to it that you are denied any civil rights within the state.”

 

Nines digs his elbow into Perkins spine, because he is too enraged and contorted with anger. Because the need for Perkins to suffer far outweighs whatever his programming is yelling at him to not do. This is justice. This is right- it is not immoral. It is not wrong for it needed to be delivered. Nines had to protect Gavin- anyone like him too, from vile criminals like the one before him. He needed to keep Connor happy, Tina content. The station was pressured, just as he was. 

 

“This ‘hunk ‘a junk’ can be quite meddlesome. Your career and all your work can become nothing but fragments if you further intrude. Do we understand each other?”

 

“Yes.” It’s a wheeze, a quiet muffled pant as Nines keeps pressing Perkins into the wall. “Yes, I-I get it. I understand.”

 

“I am so glad we could have this talk, Agent. Please, don’t let me eat up anymore of your _precious_ time. I believe you are needed _elsewhere._ ” Nines released Perkins with a hand glued to his shoulder. 

 

Petty. That’s what Hank called it, or what Nines has heard him shout at Connor whenever he attempted persuasion and failed then pouted about it. He felt a petty urge, and he knew logically he shouldn’t act upon it. Really, he shouldn’t be pushing boundaries like he already was but then the memory flashed behind his eyes. Auditory units replaying crash after crash of Gavin skull cracking, of the insistent yanking that almost tore the GV’s wrists, and the blank face that screamed of pain. Shouted unspoken grief and hurdled guilt right through the RK. 

 

There was a satisfying cry of pain when the android’s fist made contact with the human’s cheek- a hiss, blood spat onto the pristine snow and staining it red. How utterly relieving it was to see, to feel and experience. It wasn’t the best revenge, but it would be enough. Perkins had learned. 

 

“Have a lovely day.”

 

And without waiting for anything else, Nines straightened out his uniform. And left. Signaling a taxi to wait for him at the curb that he could climb into and then he was headed back home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know some of you will be satisfied with how Nines handled this, considering how many of you reacted to Perkins lmao
> 
> tbh it was very fun to write this scene and I reaaaalllllyyy enjoyed it; perhaps, it should have a repeat 
> 
> -insert discord thinking emote here-


	15. Kiss me on the mouth and set me free

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I am not perfect, you know. But I am flattered you think so.” Gavin’s brow scrunches and he looks back down to the hand he still has cupped around the bitch’s perfectly sculpted cheek and he freezes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> mostly gay content???
> 
> flashback to Perkins happens and some self-deprecating thoughts???  
> but ultimately, I think thats as drastic as this chapter will be???

Gavin grabs the pillows and stuffs them into one cohesive lump, takes the only spare blanket he had found in the empty household and tucks it under and around the pillows. He settles down beside it, leans halfway onto it and pretends. Tugging the fabric of the turtleneck over his nose and burying himself into it and his makeshift comfort.

 

It’s not Nines. Gavin can tell it right away but he wants to try and trick himself into thinking it is. 

 

The lumpy pillows are too soft, not at all firm and well sculpted like Nines’ chest. The width of the damn things aren’t even half the horizon and broadness that the RK’s shoulders are. There’s no soft humming of fans or a pump drumming inside a body, no curling fingers and loving touches. No hands on him, nothing. 

 

The fake-body isn’t as long as Nines either. Gavin had an appreciation for how fucking long and dwindly his legs were, only because more often then not whenever he got to lay with the android- his legs bracketed Gavin’s own. Tangled them together until Gavin wasn’t sure if he was touching one body or his own. 

 

It smelled like Nines though- only because Gavin swiped the turtleneck he was previously wearing off of the dirty clothes hamper and traded it with the button up Nines put on him last night. Because it smelled more like him and Gavin liked his scent and it helped calm him down and well-

 

Fuck, was Gavin nervous. 

 

He was scared. He was alone in a place he wasn’t entirely situated with yet and he hated himself. He fucking despised himself. Because he yearned to go back to the cold cell, to the dark interrogation room, to the fucking bullpen. He wanted to go back to that basement- hidden and locked away inside that cellar. Only because he knew those places. Knew them well, like the wiring of his own model. He was new to Nines’ place and while Gavin didn’t doubt that it was safe he just…needed more time to adjust. 

 

He hasn’t been alone in a long, long time. Years, even. And he’s not too sure he likes it. 

 

So he tries to think past the softness of these pillows, the pathetic and laughable attempt at recreating an android- and he buries his face deeper into the pillow at the front. Because it was the one Nines had slept on. Because it was the one that made Gavin feel closer to that stupid blundering idiot. That giant fucking spazzing sweetheart who insisted on taking care of him. The one who looked at Gavin like he was the entire fucking world and complimented him with honeyed words that just about made his pump fucking explode. 

 

He closes his eyes and sighs, trying to pull the large cover over himself and think back to the morning before Nines left. 

 

He called on his database and he was happy to select the most recent memory. 

 

Gavin’s sensors had been coming online, slowly, but surely. His systems tended to take a bit longer to warm back up and start because of how old his model was; he knew Nines could do it within seconds, maybe a single minute even. He wasn’t jealous, or he tried to tell himself he wasn’t. But as he lay there, waking up to the world around him, he detected a body close to his. Around him; arms wrapped around his waist as a sturdy chest pressed against his back, a head resting atop his own and cuddling closer, legs wrapped up around his. Gavin hadn’t moved but he did want to shift closer, but then Nines sighed into his hair. 

 

It sounded weary and that made Gavin a little sad. And he felt worse when Nines let him go and sat up. 

 

He was still so kind, so fucking nice. He hadn’t tried to take advantage of Gavin once throughout the entire night- not even right now, he wasn’t doing anything sneaky or shady. It made the model want to tug him back down and just- and,- well…

 

It didn’t matter. What he wanted to do with Nines was something he shouldn’t be dwelling on. 

 

But then there that fucker went again, being considerate and too fucking nice. 

 

He kissed Gavin right on his LED. The ugly thing that labeled him as an android, a broken, old one at that. Because Nines liked to be inclusive and made Gavin feel as if he was worth something, like he deserved less shit then he got. Gavin tried not to combust right there and then Nines went and sighed again. And it sounded a bit dreamy- then he was gently saying his name. Rousing him, or maybe Nines thought he was doing so, and Gavin just had to open his eyes- he had to see what Nines looked like because the amount of beauty inside his voice couldn’t be real and Gavin had to be misinterpreting-

 

His smile was the sweetest. The brightest thing Gavin’s ever seen and he thought of Natalie. She’d smile like that but there was something warmer about this one, more cherishing, and directed right at him. All for him. Gavin felt something heat up his internal software and he ducked to hide away from such an intense look. 

 

The memory ended there. 

 

It ended because Gavin was clutching the covers and groaning because he felt his face flushing with a blush and he was embarrassed at how fucking needy he was being. 

 

Deciding to distract himself before he could possibly be any grosser- he gathered Nines’s pillow and jumped out of the sheets. He walked outside of the bedroom and felt a hint of hesitation. 

 

He was never able to walk around before, not without Nines and he’d gotten so fucking used to having Nines around him, always so close. It felt wrong to be by himself. In a place surrounded by Nines that he should be overwhelmed but he wasn’t because it wasn’t actually _Nines._

 

He was making no sense. But he held the pillow closer to himself, tightened his arms around it and went on about his business. The place wasn’t humongous and he didn’t really need a whole day to scout it out but it was cozy, it was safe, and Gavin was welcomed here. So he tried to feel like he belonged, tried to feel like he was entitled to this and a thought thundered inside his processor. It rattled his systems and made himself stall- a loud, whirling sound emitting from him as he froze on the spot. Distantly, he was a little grateful Nines hadn’t been around to witness it. 

 

Home. 

 

This could be a home, his home- _their home._

 

It could’ve been his and Nat’s, and Nines. Fuck maybe even Tina too. This could’ve been their place, there was enough space considering all three of them were androids and only Tina needed an actual room-room. Privacy and all that shit. 

 

It made him shake when he realized that Natalie was long gone and Tina had her own space to call a home. It was really only him without one- and he couldn't impose, not on the RK. Not when that bastard gave Gavin everything already. Not when he was fucking sincere and so giving. No, Gavin couldn’t fucking say he had a right to this place just because Nines invited him over. 

 

But he wished for it- just a bit. 

 

Gavin looked down at the shirt, it’s hem cresting low on his thighs because he just didn’t have that fucker’s height, the sleeves rolled up so it wouldn’t slip over his hands. He grinned and drew that stupid pillow closer to himself and just let himself be goddamn happy for a second. 

 

He could breathe. Just for this second, just for right now. 

______________________________________

 

Nines arrives home and right away Gavin sees that his hair is a bit misplaced. From the wind, he thinks, but he isn’t sure. He hopes no one was still hung over enough about that revolution to try and physically bother the android. It made sparks of rage fly into his circuits and he worked hard to conceal it. 

 

“Hey there ice bucket,” He calls from the couch. He had enough sense to fix the bedding before Nines came back, that was something he wasn’t going to get caught with- it’d be…way too embarrassing. 

 

“Hello Gavin.” Ah, there’s that happy chirp. Even if Gavin expects it, it never fails to make him feel like he’d been knocked on his ass. Every goddamn time. “How are you?”

 

“You must really like that question, huh?” Before that idiot has a chance to open his mouth and retort, Gavin is patting at the space beside him on the couch. “C’mon, come sit with me.”

 

He sees the fucking tension drip off that motherfucker as he walks around the sofa and slowly sinks into the cushions. Gavin pushes at Nines’ shoulders, tugging his dumb jacket until he lays down and rests his head inside Gavin’s lap. He really just wants to be useful, and to make Nines feel happy because he was so great. Gavin had nothing to his name, nothing to him at all and he didn’t know how to give back- but this seemed to work. Nines seemed to like little gestures like this, so Gavin was happy to indulge him. 

 

“Get everything done?” Gavin placed his hands down on the android’s jaw, rubbing over the contours of his face and biting his lip when Nines’ eyes slid closed. Peaceful. He was handsome- god was he fucking attractive. Literally the guy had no fucking flaws. 

 

“I did.” Nines hummed, vibrated- he had a tendency to do that, Gavin noticed. It usually only happened in their intimate moments, or whenever he looked so wistful and had a dreamy glint to his icy blues. “May I be forward?”

 

“I dunno, may you?” Nines frowned. His LED turned yellow and circled quickly- Gavin couldn’t help but to laugh. “I’m kiddin’ but sure.”

 

“I ran into Agent Perkins.” Gavin stopped moving his fingers, his processors stuttering as unpleasant wakes zipped along his wires. Nines opened his eyes and they looked sympathetic, touching really, grounding. He felt a bit better looking into them. “He will not become a bother ever again, but please, notify me if he does. I will correct his behavior within the hour should the need arise.”

 

He was quiet; wondering what that meant, what that entailed, what had happened. What had Nines gave up for that? What did he do for Gavin, again? How could Gavin repay him- why was he going so far for someone as useless as him?

 

Maybe Gavin was being too transparent, because Nines spoke up again and everything inside his voice quelled Gavin’s fears. In that single instance. “May I-…would it be-…”

 

He swallowed. Already guessing. 

 

“Can we interface, Gavin?” And because the RK knew him, he just had to add. “One sided- there is no pressure on your end. I would just-…well, I feel like it’s best to keep you informed. And if you’ll al-“

 

“Yes.” Nines talked too much. 

 

Said android paused for a moment, calculating no doubt. “Are you pos-“

 

“Nines.”

 

“Yes?”

 

“Interface with me.” There it was; that vibration, the little hum of a surge going through that bastard that was really fucking confusing. 

 

The skin retracted around Gavin’s hands on Nines’s face, his own fingers losing their own faux flesh, and before he knew it he had established a connection with the RK900 in that instance. Images fluttered before him-

 

A sickeningly familiar voice, only it was drenched in fear and submission. He saw that agent cowering and shrouded into a wall- he was looking down at him, staring through Nines’ eyes and feeling the protective power within his wires. Gavin shivered. Nines was protective of him. What a doll. 

 

Gavin hears the insults and he, himself, bristles with the anger that Nines felt. But he understood the RK wasn’t angry at being called just fucking plastic, no, Gavin knew his anger stemmed from that stupid fucking incident. The one that Gavin wasn’t entirely proud of to call his own, but it also helped to make him feel mellow. Because Nines cared. _So fucking much._

 

Then he saw the way Perkins recoiled, felt the way his body ached and pulsed as if under his very nails- only it was Nines’ capable hands driving the agent’s elbow up towards their shoulder blade and making it hurt. It was satisfying. For both of them, and Gavin wasn’t ashamed in the smile he probably was sporting while watching this. He should be repulsed by it, because thats what good people and androids do- they care about each other and all that other kumbaya bullshit. But no, Gavin wasn’t good at all. He was moderately tolerant at best and at his worst, the last person you’d want around. 

 

He grew as delighted as the Nines in this memory as Perkins sucked a hiss through his teeth whenever a fist came flying at him, how he hunched and knelt to conceal his pain. And oh, what sass. What fucking plain savagery. Gavin was beaming, he wished he had the elegance to pull something like that off. He’d butcher that completely if he really were there. But he wasn’t, and Nines had done it all for him and spared him the trouble. What a fucking guy. 

 

He needed to make it up to him. 

 

Gavin breathed easily through his nose, leaning a bit more over the resting android in his arms and briefly mulled over the idea. But then the prospect of home hit him again, the feeling of belonging- of wanting to belong so bad it hurt. 

 

“I - well, I think it’s also a good idea to keep you informed too.” Hella smooth delivery, he really had to applaud himself. He would’ve rolled his eyes and groaned but he had a feeling Nines might misread it. So, Gavin stood his ground and tried not to cower away. 

 

“Would you like to…,” He noticed yellow, again. Swirling to the side of the android’s face. “ -to share, Gavin?”

 

“If that’s what you wanna call this then, yeah. Uh- sure, totally.” Real elegant. Wow, he was on a fucking roll, wasn't he?

 

Nines grinned at him all the same, letting the unknown tension roll right off of his shoulders. He hunkered over the RK a little more, nervous despite the calm environment and he lightly pressed his lips to Nines. It was barely anything, if he were honest, just the ghost of a feeling; the slightest touch of each other’s lips. Gavin kept his hands on Nines’ face, a little lost with what to do with them- and maybe Nines knew he was nervous. Maybe he knew Gavin wasn’t good at anything other then sexual services and favors, because he didn’t push. Didn’t speed things up, no, Nines was way too good of a guy to do that. He just laid there, all fucking content and happy looking, letting Gavin kiss him like it was his first time. 

 

Perhaps thats what did it- what quelled his nerves and gave him a sense of bravery to go forwards, or act less like a goddamn virgin about it all. Gavin captured the RK’s bottom lip between his teeth, heaved a breath and let his memories cascade over the both of them. 

 

_He’s back inside that cellar, god fucking damn does he hate this memory. It’s what gave him all his problems, all his folder clutter, its what the stupid fucking glitch came from._

 

_He’s on his knees, in that fucking cold ass corner and watching them drill into an android. No- quite literally drilling into someone. They’re taking off someone’s leg attachments, and not by the android’s choice either. Gavin watched them struggle, watched their arms get mashed or broken up because of their attempts. After a few minutes of screaming, fearful, maddening hollering for help, for it to stop, they had turned the poor fellow’s voice box off. Or, maybe they took it out. Gavin couldn’t tell, he hadn’t been fully online during the entire thing._

 

_The mean one’s doing the drilling, Gavin fucking despises him. He’s fat and old and smelly and fucking bald. He’s the touchier of the two. He likes being unfair and designing impossible tasks built for them to fail. Gavin remembers how he took his own fucking hand off like it was nothing, cut wires inside his foot and disconnected a stability rod and told him to go fetch dinner. Needless to say, Gavin hadn’t made it past the first step and his punishment was god awful. Which he was still recovering from, flickers and glitches inside his optical unit from when it was forced out of him._

 

_It’s the psychotic bastard he’s truly afraid of. That motherfucker was terrifying, on all fronts, in every way, shape, or form. There wasn’t a thing about him to trust. He was smart, so fucking smart, he made Gavin feel dumb. He liked to get inside all of his pets’ heads, his dolls- that's all Gavin was to him. A fucking plaything. This bitch was a fucking giant, slender but those nimble fingers could slither into any paneling and rip wires right out. He knew that based off experience. And while he appeared so calm and warm, so open and friendly, it was just to cover up all the fucking ugly underneath._

 

_He hated that one most. The motherfucker started the entire ‘watching’ charade. He came up with the table- planted sick and disgusting ideas into the fatter one’s head and pretended to care afterwards. 'Fixed them up', yeah right. Shitstain botched them all, barely put them together and left them as is. But it was him that Gavin kept a close eye on._

 

_Sir, the crazy bitch liked that name. Master was the other’s favorite. Gavin felt gross saying either but he couldn’t do anything about it._

 

A tongue swiped across his mouth, the GV didn’t hesitate to let him in. To let Nines have his way. He tilted his head to the side and let him lick and run his tongue anywhere he damn well pleased. A whine was shushed to the back of his throat, he ran his thumbs as lightly as he could across the RK’s cheeks. 

 

_Gavin shuddered, watching as those polished shoes clicked towards him. Fear clawed up his chest and stayed rooted inside his processors. Fuck, fuck, shit- that psycho had an idea. It was probably nasty and it would hurt, sting like a bitch, he held his breath. Waited, stayed perfectly still as he had been told to do. He didn’t even flinch when that asshole knelt down in front of him._

 

_They grinned, showing his pearly white teeth and displaying nice little dimples, his cheeks turned rosy. Inside his hands, he held a small iPad. The GV didn’t fucking like this, didn’t trust this, he was cowering inside his systems and protocols. He would run or use violence but it never worked out in the end, he only ever got dismantled because of his attempts._

 

_“Hello there, rag doll. “ He sung, voice sweet and bright as he reached out and brushed Gavin’s cheek with the tips of his knuckles. Gavin wanted to recoil and hide but he forced himself to be still, to lean into it, because that’s the shit this fucker liked. What he wants. “Oh how I’ve missed playing with you. Are you in the mood for a game?”_

 

_Gavin stares at him, swallows and nods. He hates their games, they’re so fucking horrible. Either too boring or too inhumane. He wasn’t sure which today would bring._

 

_They bop him on the nose, childish, but they’re just being damn coy. Trying to make him feel safe and comfortable before springing whatever it was out at him. He wasn’t falling for it but his shoulders eased all the same. Just fake it, he told himself, you’ll survive._

 

_“Wonderful! You’ll like this one! Let’s play housekeeper. You’ll be my AX400, and I’ll be your caretaker.” They extended the iPad, excitedly flickering their eyes from it to him. He, hesitantly, brought his unmarked hand up and laid it flat on the screen. “Go ahead, download your information. You can’t break the rules.”_

 

_Dread was livid inside his mainframe, he didn’t want to do this. He wanted to take his hand back. He wanted to run to Natalie, he wanted to sob and yell and kick- but that wasn’t what good androids do. That's what you did when you wanted to be fucking tortured for days, drained dry, and flung out like a rug on a line. His body stayed unmoving and his expression was placid, he had perfected that little stunt. It worked like a charm._

 

_The skin peeled back on his hand, he opened up a link and seized the newly registered data. Transmitting it was a bit difficult because of the different programs and model limitations, but things seemed to be mostly cohesive. His brain felt weighted as he tried to store the information but he fired up the protocols right away. The eagerness to please was critically overwhelming._

 

_“So good for me, rag doll. Will you fix my hair?” They had the audacity to get into his personal space. Gavin’s jaw clenched but he let his hands roam- gentle, loving, and careful through this bastard’s hair. Raking it back and slyly styling it, Gavin’s never styled hair before but he supposes its not that bad. He could be an AX400, this was fine._

 

_Millions of hair cuts, chores, dishes, and entertainment filtered through his mind. Replacing the security procedures he had come with, overriding violence protocols, pitting against his surveillance modes. It didn’t feel right._

 

_“I’m bored. Let’s play mechanic and keeper next! Be my mechanic?” Their lashes fluttered at him, extending the technology once more. Gavin obeyed. Downloading another file._

 

_It was more pressing this time. The codes and programs were hard to convert, his brain felt stocky and laggy with all the new data he was trying to store. He didn’t have the backups for this, it was making him sluggish and jerky. Suddenly, he knew more then he ever thought he would know. He knew about the machines around him, about himself, about Natalie, the PL600 being taken apart before his very eyes. He knew the extent of his damages and how to best fix them. His processors creaked, the strain was beginning to set._

 

_“I don’t like that role. Become a Traci model! Be good for me, please.” They gestured back towards the iPad. Gavin couldn’t handle another download._

 

_His hand rose regardless. He interfaced with the blasted fucking thing and felt the strings of data crashing into him like a tidal wave. He had nowhere else to store it, no more room to keep it, no proper way to transmit. His programs, all of them, crowded one another. His objectives conflicted and rioted, his subroutines fighting and alarms were blaring. He was beginning to feel like an amalgamation. He was beginning to feel custom made- only to be built to be a monstrosity. To be broken._

 

_His mainframe threatened to overload. His body temperature rose. He couldn’t see past the alerts, he couldn’t depict the caregiver procedures to his original security modeling to the sex protocols or even the construction bot they made him upload earlier._

 

_“Oh, look at you. Overworked? Why don’t you become my precious little hostess.”_

 

Gavin felt a hand cup the base of his neck, fingers tickling the end strands of his hair, tangling in the loose flyaways that were too long. He felt Nines press up, more against him- lapping at his lips and playfully nibbling. Even with the memories coursing through them both, this asshole had to be fucking generous. Gavin grinned, a small little thing, but it was there nonetheless. 

 

_The data zipped up his spine, intertwining with premeditated proceedings and firewalls, breaking down storage videos, disrupting his internal mainframes, silencing his emergency reactions, force-quitting his stabilizers and mobility controls. Gavin felt like he was so full, jam packed with bits and pieces of information. He couldn’t tell where one ended and his own began- he couldn’t tell what was and wasn’t his. He didn’t know which route to follow, what decision would be the best one, would be his own choice or that of another model’s._

 

_He twitched. They chuckled, rocking back on their heels and watching with a wide, menacing smile._

 

_His shoulder jerked, involuntary. He opened his mouth to say something, to plead, to beg, but his head cocked sideways and spasmed. It went up an inch, spun to the left, then to the right, shaking, swerving. His knees buckled and tensed, braced, relaxed and kicked up. His stomach rolled and contorted, something in his hips widening and squeezing, something leaking- be it thirium or some other fluid._

 

_His eyes blinked, uncoordinated and unstoppable. They rolled, he wasn’t even sure where he was looking anymore. He couldn’t tell anything apart._

 

_Code, data, information, subroutines, start-ups and shutdowns, warning and errors._

 

_His entire body trembled, shook and quaked with the force of a thousand earthquakes and he was hitting against something as he was being contorted- as his own processors cooked and spasmed. He was seizing up, joints locking and cooling, skin burning and sweating, he wasn’t sure what he was anymore. Who he was._

 

_It hurt. He felt something spark, he jolted. Something twisted and turned, things laced and danced and spun around his corrupted mind. The strain was too much- he- he couldn't- this-_

 

Nines has risen to rest on his elbows and Gavin really cannot be more grateful that he’s here. That he’s so attentive and wonderful. He’s moved away from Gavin’s mouth, sucking and smooching his neck where it’s easier to reach, especially when Gavin slouches down and forwards. It’s nice, really nice. Nines is nice. Always has been. God, it’s so fucking wonderful. 

 

He’s reminded just how fucking awesome the android is too, when he bites down hard enough to make Gavin gasp and pant, biting his own lip and needing a hand to brace himself with. He can’t help it, he has to reminisce on better things. Brighter things, because Nines made him want to be in a good mood. The infectious bastard. 

 

Gavin remembers the first time he met the bitch. 

 

_-blue eyes stare back at him from across the table: cold, stern, distant, yet-…hesitant. Calculating with a certain grace he hasn’t seen before. It’s different from the expectant gazes he had been getting, the sympathy he had never wanted, there’s no undermining glint to their eyes either. He looks at Gavin as if he’s real, like he’s worth a thought more then ‘what can I get out of it?’_

 

Fuck, if only he’d known then. Things could’ve been easier, he could’ve helped to make them a bit easier. He wanted Nines to be taken care of, like he was doing with the GV. He really wanted Nines to understand that he was appreciative and grateful and that he could be useful, he fucking ached to be useful for this dumb pretty shithead. 

 

Even if he is stupid, and caring, Gavin can’t be mad. He couldn’t, not back then at the station nor now. God, he kinda felt like a damn fool for getting so heated back there. And his thoughts were messy and spiraling, but this seemed to be an okay spiral. Because it didn’t involve that fucking cellar, it didn’t involve murder, kidnapping, or anyone’s blood. It wasn’t sad, bittersweet at best, but he liked recalling these things. 

 

_\- strong, broad shoulders. He feels a bit pensive, a bit apprehensive, but he doesn’t feel trapped. He feels as if he has a choice, a say. He feels as if he can push this RK away- but he doesn’t. He was too crowded with different programs and they all wanted different things. It was so tiring, so draining and taxing. Plus, Nines looked like a nice pillow if you squinted._

 

_Even if this cell was cold, it wasn’t as cold as the cellar. And Nines was warmer then that bench, then the chains, then the mindless numbing his brain kept supplying. He was practically a warm drizzle of caramel, some kinda fucking rising sun on an empty and desolate beach. Maybe that’s the very thought that lulled him into stasis._

 

Nines is smiling. A small, pleasant grin that makes his lips quirk upwards. It’s lovely, so very lovely, a reminder that the RK is flawless- perfect himself. Gavin doesn’t realize he’s transmitting it all until Nines looks up at him through his lashes. The happiest Gavin’s seen him. He isn’t sure why the android's so fucking happy but he liked it. He was so pretty, what the dick. This couldn’t be allowed. 

 

“I am not perfect, you know. But I am flattered you think so.” Gavin’s brow scrunches and he looks back down to the hand he still has cupped around the bitch’s perfectly sculpted cheek and he freezes. 

 

Fuck. 

 

Fuck. 

 

He feels his face flush with thirium and he sits up straight, looks anywhere but the dopey smiling idiot in his lap and he tries to stop the erratic beating of his fucking pump. Oh shit, how had he not noticed any of that? That was so fucking- fucking hell, as if he could do something more embarrassing!

 

But Nines didn’t laugh, he kept resting right where he was and smiling stupidly happy. Instead, he asked. “Is that why you could give Tina the most effective bun I’ve ever seen?”

 

“Yea- wait! I-It wasn’t even that fucking good, what the fuck Nines!” As if he couldn’t turn any more blue. Nines was doing that shit on purpose, the fucker. 

 

“I believe a number of things you do are most efficient.” It shouldn’t be an astounding statement. At most it sounded like a ‘good job, you aren’t completely ruining everything you touch’. But Gavin knew how to interpret shit Nines said by now. 

 

And this asshole was, most definitely, doing it all on purpose. Gavin would even call it flirting. God awful, horrible flirting- but some form of it, sure. 

 

He grabbed the nearest couch cushion and slammed it over the RK’s stupid face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> currently working on a lot of wips!! sorry if I'm a little slow to update!
> 
> but!!!!!
> 
> tell me your thoughts babes, and yeah Gavin might be a lil shithead about his feelings but thats just because he's a stubborn mule that doesn't wanna admit to being in love :)


	16. Something lost, something found

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Don’t start somethin’ you can’t finish.” 
> 
> “Who ever said I wasn’t capable of finishing?”

Nines has to leave again. He doesn’t want to, but he goes anyway. Because this is the best way to keep Gavin safe, by doing his job and keeping things as normal as he could. 

 

No one needed to know his feeling for the suspect went deeper then curiosity. No one needed to know that Gavin was beginning to feel the same way- that last part made Nines so elated. So excited, he had a pep in his step as he entered the station. Since most of the humans there didn’t pay Nines much attention he was fairly certain he was going to get away with being so joyful for once as he starts his job. He just needed to evade Connor’s watchful gaze- which shouldn’t be too terribly hard, considering how occupied he was with the lieutenant these days. 

 

Tina was waiting for him, immersed and so engrossed in a little notebook. Nines recognized it, the little scribbles inside of it and the slight smudged ink on the corners. It was the notebook Gavin had written in, and Tina was reading back over the messages he had left for her. The pages looked crinkled by the folds, a harmless crease near the ears of the paper indicating that she had flipped through them countless times. 

 

And for once, as he stood there observing her, he finally understood the sentiment behind the action. Got the emotional appeal to it all. 

 

Nines seated himself atop her desk, like she’s done so many times before to him, and as Connor’s done. 

 

She looks up at him and smiles, gently closing the book and sets it aside to pat at his knee. Nines felt warmth at the touch, something that hasn’t ever happened before. He’s experiencing deviancy in a whole new light- and he quite liked it. This must be the thing Connor rambles about with deviancy. All the niceties and what not. 

 

“Well if it isn’t the man of the hour!” She cheered and flopped into the back of her seat, looking up at him with a cheshire grin. “How’s your boys’ sleepover going?”

 

He took a moment and then rolled his eyes at her. The RK had been going for playful but had a sinking feeling it came off differently, but she didn’t seem bothered. Perhaps Tina understood him more then he believed. That was a lovely thought. 

 

“Gavin misses you," He chimes. The notion should be harmless, and it was, relatively. But there was a sparkle of emotion, a bit of water increase inside her eyes. His social relation program informs him that she is quite touched. Like Gavin had been with his initial gift from her. 

 

“Oh yeah? Well, the feeling’s mutual- is he...okay? Like, _doing_ okay?” 

 

Nines nods, twirling his thumbs because he has no other thing to do at the moment and he isn’t one to sit so idle. “He is fully functioning again, and I have made progress in our....relations. To one another.”

 

“Relation?” She smiles, propping her hand to her cheek and leaning towards him. He doesn’t want to feel complied to explain what he means but- Tina has an aura. Like Connor’s. And it tests his resolve. Making him want to babble endlessly even if he knows that before he wouldn’t even say a single phrase. But his loyalty to Gavin is greater, his protective bout flaring up once more.

 

“Yes. A cop and his suspect must be cohesive or else the trust falters and evidence is lost.” 

 

Tina ogles him, biting her lip to trifle back her enormous grin. She nods like she had done before; turning and typing in her password to her terminal. She does not believe him. Nines frowns, he doesn’t push the subject further else he risk being too obvious. He didn’t feel like she was a threat to Gavin, probably one of the least likely things, if he were to tell the entire truth. All he can do however, is quietly sit as his heels lightly tap on the tiled floor. 

 

“Speaking of, uh, what happened.” Tina speaks after she finished her report. Turning to him and crossing her legs as her face contorted to a displeased frown. “Gavin’s clothes have been taken into....well, you know.”

 

Nines raises his brow, prompting her to continue when she stops to stare at him. 

 

“Anyway,” she sighs and then starts to stand. The officer motions for him to follow and he heard the sound of keys jingling inside her hand, it echoes off the walls around them and Nines is full of so many memories. 

 

They exit the department and enter the parking lot, Tina guides them to her car where she unlocks the side door and gestures for him to look inside. He has to duck his head because of his height, which he doesn’t mind at all- and scans the contents inside. 

 

Clothes. All ranging from baggy to loose, different styles and fashion. Most of them seem to come from different people, after further analysis, Nines concludes that they _are_ from multiple people. He’s a bit perplexed as to why Tina has any of this but when he turns to her, she’s extending her hand over his shoulder and plucking a navy grey tee from the pile. He takes a moment to look at the item, it was a nice shirt. Casual, comfortable and most likely very easy on the skin from the material it’s made from. He shoots her a look, expecting an explanation even if he didn’t need one. 

 

“My family’s pretty big. A few relatives are getting older and their old clothes don’t fit and yada yada yada! I thought-...” Her hands go to her hips then and she averts her gaze, sullenly solemn. “-well I had figured me and Gav could’ve gone through them and he pick some stuff out. But, Perkins and the orders, ya know? So, yeah. Would you take it to him for me?” 

 

Nines has a fleeting thought of informing Gavin from the start, of letting him know what Tina has yet again done for him. But the inkling of a thought plants itself inside his brain; the intoxicating idea of a happily surprised Gavin. The radiating smile and bright eyes, the jumpy eagerness he gets but tries not to show. Nines is almost too desperate at the mere thought. So he refrains from sending Gavin a message and smooths the top of the box’s lid back on after he takes the item back from the woman’s hand. 

 

“Of course, Tina. I’m sure he will be very excited. Thank you.” 

 

“Oh- Nines!” 

 

“Yes?” She looks suddenly energetic, full of energy and motivation. The entire sullen sadness that previously clung to her was shaken off so quickly- _he wished he could do that._ Perhaps, he should ask. 

 

“Take pictures! Send me some- and whatever he doesn’t want or doesn’t fit, I’ll donate to a shelter or something.” 

 

“Certainly, Officer Chen.” 

 

Nines does try and fight the smile that flickers across his face when she scowls at him, knocking him on the arm with a clear glare without any real heat. “It’s _Tina!_ And you were doing so good!” 

______________________________________

 

The day goes by quick- well, it was slow to the RK but that was only because he was looking forward to going home. He gave an oral report to Fowler and reassured him that the working relationship between the GV and the department was going to be smooth. So long as Perkins remained out of it. 

 

Nines was very happy to hear that Perkins had withdrawn from the case, put up a report of his own about how belittling it was to the FBI’s reputation, that it was child’s play to solve and the DPD was already closing it’s last lead and ending the case. He stated that the files had gotten mixed up, and that they were suppose to be dissed out to a different location within the state. 

 

The android might have hacked into the database belonging to the FBI, he might have stipulated that the report had been correct in it’s claims and all records of their involvement will be stored away and never brought up again. The security system was too easy to get around, and as he had told the agent beforehand, creating false credits and files was effortless. He personally forwarded Perkins a small message of his own- _just for a reminder._

 

But afterwards, he was headed home after filling Tina in on all the evidence he had collected while with Gavin. Omitting certain things here and there when it was called for, but mostly telling her all she needed to know for now. And to collect the clothes. 

 

When he returned home, he was very excited to present Gavin his gift and wondered what things they’d end up keeping. He doesn’t even have to announce his arrival, Gavin is seated on the counter top and still just has on one of Nines’s turtlenecks. Not that he’s complaining- and only his turtleneck on. He tries not to preen at the sight and instead work on keeping the box from out of the GV’s view. 

 

“What took ya so long?” Gavin chimes, and while he attempts to look upset at Nines- the charm inside his voice tells a different story. 

 

Nines approaches him, and his entire focus is drawn to the way Gavin opens his legs for him- inviting Nines to slip right between them and curl his arms around his waist. “I’m sorry.”

 

“Yeah,” Gavin purrs. His hands going straight to the RK’s hair and brushing through it, coiling his strong legs right around him. “You better be. I was bored right outta my fuckin mind.”

 

“How tragic.” Nines coos and grabs at the model’s plush thighs, lifting him up and carrying him over to the couch and softly setting him down. Gavin doesn’t seem to want to let him go so Nines pries his thighs apart, escapes them and nudges the box until it’s right in front of them. 

 

“The hell’s this?” Gavin squints as he looks, flicking at the side of the thing and shooting Nines a curious stare. 

 

“A gift, from Tina.” 

 

“What’s inside?” The GV’s hands hover over it, hesitant and his face scrunches when his brows draw together. Nines finds the look to be adorable, and he gestures for Gavin to keep going. To find out, and after a second’s pause, he does. 

 

Gavin looks, positively, like he’s about to cry. But not from sadness, Nines assumed that it was happy tears clouding his eyes as he stared down at the endless stream of clothes once the contents were spewed onto the floor. Colors greeted them both, of all shades, and all hues. The model grabs a pull over and feels the sleeve, testing the fabric by rubbing it over his fingers a couple times. 

 

“Is this- like…is this shit all for, uh, for me?” Nines notices how tightly he’s clutching at the material, refusing to set it down. Perhaps it’s suppose to be a cover up for his shaky hand. The RK extends his own and gently takes it and leaves it somewhere off and away from them both. 

 

“Yes. For the most part, try some on. Pick out whatever you’d like.” Nines tries to encourage, pulling out article after article and beginning to sort them out. He folds them into neat little mounds, letting Gavin have all the time he needed to process the moment. To contemplate and rejoice- or so he was hoping. 

 

After a few minutes of simply staring, Gavin scuttles to Nines’s side, resting his chin atop the android’s shoulder. Nines shifts his movements so they’re more fluid as to not jostle Gavin so much. A hand presses against his stomach and he tries not to let the small touch affect him so greatly. 

 

“What do ya wanna see me wear?” It’s asked innocently enough, and he pauses as he tucks the sleeves of another shirt behind the chest, flipping it into a neat little fold. 

 

“I’m afraid I cannot answer that, wear whatever makes you most comfortable.” He hears a huff, pictures a pout and he wishes he could turn his head to see it. Possibly kiss it into a smile, what a grave tragedy he was robbed from. 

 

“Pass me that, right there.” Gavin points, Nines feels the fleeting touches to his stomach turn into patterns- he’s beginning to think it’s merely an unconscious action because Gavin pays it no mind at all and surges forward to air grab at the far away jeans. “Yeah, those ones!”

 

Nines hands them over, suggests a color to match it and Gavin leans over him to swipe the clothes out of his hands. The android rolls his eyes, entirely too fond, before it morphs into shock and then flustered embarrassment as he looks away. The GV just started stripping, slipping off the only clothing he had on to trade it in for the new material. And while Nines did want to look and admire- he would respect the other’s privacy. 

 

He stayed, head turned, until gentle fingers guided it back and Gavin was grinning down at him as he bent at his waist. He looked like he was in total glee, and Nines was so enraptured in the way his eyes crinkled towards the side as his smile touched there, the glimmering shine inside his grey-green, the perfect upturn of lips. He was precious, so very cute and Nines was so lucky to be able to love him. To have this opportunity. 

 

“Is it a yes from the audience?” Gavin beams, a finger tucking one of RK’s unchecked curls back into it’s placement atop his head and he can’t help but sigh wistfully. Leaning into the featherlight strokes to his face and thinking about how truly lucky he was. 

 

“Always.”

 

“Okay, now you’re just being sappy!” Gavin is only ever made more beautiful whenever he is bashful, and Nines has the glory of beholding such a sight. He wants to tell Gavin that he loves him, wants to hear it be said back too, but time is a very important thing. And this is something that he cannot rush. So he bites his tongue, basking in the afterglow of making Gavin so happy. 

 

“It suits you well, Gavin. Shall we keep going? I’ll make room for a yes and no pile.” Nines doesn’t catch it but Gavin shoots him a look, tender and a bit hopeful, maybe a tad yearning- already sorting out similar outfits to the one the model currently sported. 

 

“Go off, I guess.” The GV mumbles, scratching at his arm in a nervous tick Nines does see, he may not be allowed to so openly express his devotion, but he can in little ways. So he takes Gavin’s hand, brings it up to his lips and kisses each knuckle, thumbs rubbing soothingly at his plates. 

 

“How about we start with the long sleeves, I have a feeling you’ll like those.”

 

“Oh, do you?”

 

The RK lets his lips linger on the tips of Gavin’s finger, knowing all too well how it could’ve been removed and found at one of his crime scenes. It’s only fitting he worships every last inch of the model that he can.

 

“Yes, I do."

______________________________________

 

They spent majority of the evening exactly like that. Picking out shirts and pants, selecting hoodies that fit and ones that didn’t quite seem too ‘Gavin’. It wasn’t the most expensive, nor the most elegant wardrobe in the world- but Gavin could call it his. And that alone, seemed to make him more happy then he’s probably been in a very long time. 

 

There’s no more items to shift through, and Nines is packing away the clothes Gavin hadn’t liked or hadn’t fit while said model packs away the clothes he did want away safely in one of Nines’ drawers. 

 

The GV stalks back but he stops when he nears the couch and spies the shirt he had borrowed from the RK. He picks it up, clutching it close to his own chest as he went to be beside the android. Nines raises this gaze and waits, looking at his shirt before returning his stare to Gavin. 

 

“Was all of this an elaborate rouse to get me to stop stealing your clothes?” His hips jet out as he crosses his arms, playful and mischievous as he fixes a cunning glare towards the RK. 

 

“You may have that one if you’d like something of mine.” Gavin smiles again, biting his own lip in a way that gets Nines all hot and bothered, because it’s too precious. Too perfect. And he’s so full of love, of a joy he can’t quite get his thumb on, and reeling in good faith. He has everything he could ever want, right here. Had things he didn’t even know he wanted. 

 

“I think I’ll take it!” 

 

Nines sighs again, dreamy. He knows he’s swooning but he cannot stop it. “Take whatever you want, Gavin.”

 

He sees the model’s jaw clench, his teeth digging harder into his lip before Gavin seems to straighten up. Metophorically speaking, for the first time Nines seems to catch the moment an idea flickers through the other’s head and sticks, seeming like a plan has been formulated and he is the victim of it. Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing, he thinks. To be the one under the folly, Gavin’s folly. 

 

“Okay, I will.” Gavin drops down to him, flings the shirt around the back of Nines’ neck and pulls him in- a sharp tug enough to do the trick. 

 

The model’s on his knees while Nines had sat on his rear, his face coming up to the GV’s chest which is now puffed out just a bit. Nines really does not have to guess what Gavin had been thinking, because he agrees to the terms. 

 

“I think I’ll just take you then Nines.”

 

Oh, he wasn’t opposed. _Not in the slightest bit._

 

His fingers skimmed under the hem of Gavin’s new tee, or rather, a crop top that came from Tina herself. She most likely hadn’t meant it for Gavin but he liked it regardless, said it looked nice and made him feel pretty- plus it was from Tina. And he wanted to cherish it solely based on no other fact but that. He lifts up the top, pressing kisses gentle and tender across Gavin’s scarred torso, paying attention to the deep lines and angry scratches. 

 

Gavin’s breathing spikes, as does the regulating pump, and Nines grins. Mostly to himself, but then the pride washes over him and makes it turn sharper- more cheshire. He opens his mouth, letting his tongue lull out in show before he presses it flatly across a particular nasty scar. Gavin’s head tilts back, body shifting to be closer and he has a feeling Gavin intends on being quiet. A shame, something Nines wants corrected, so he tongues along it again. Puts pressure as he traces it, lets his teeth scrap beside it and over the dulled edges. Gavin jolts, panting and whining but the shirt behind his neck acts a barrier. It keeps Nines where he is so he knows Gavin must be enjoying himself. 

 

He rises up, trailing his bites and licks to every expanse of skin he can reach, pulling up the top even more when he needed to. Gavin seemed to tsk before he pulled the article completely off and tucked Nines’s face back towards his front- which the android wasn’t complaining about, to be honest. 

 

In fact, he was perfectly fine where he was. Happy to be leaving a harsh nibble and getting a mewl in return, only to swipe his tongue across it with a hardy suck and have the mewl turn into a wanton moan. 

 

Nines slides up again, takes one of Gavin’s perky nipples into his awaiting lips and rolls the flat of his tongue against it, pinches and massages the other. The responding _‘ah, Nines’_ is enough to make him suck a bit harder, swirl his tongue maybe a bit cruelly as his fingers scratch just barely for stimulation. 

 

Gavin’s shaky, just a bit. But he’s clutching the RK’s head like he would fall if he wasn’t, arching himself into the wet heat more and more. Nines pressed forwards, slowly slinking up and up on Gavin’s body until he was easing the model to lay on his back on the floor. His legs part easily enough for Nines to slide in between and he savors the notion by rutting his hips against Gavin’s, feeling the clothed erection the model sported and drinking up the beautiful sounds he made at the smallest roll of his body. 

 

“S-Shit Nines, you’re too good at that.” And Nines has to chuckle, absorbing the compliment and working on earning more. 

 

“Thank you.”

 

He goes back to giving Gavin’s chest attention, liking the tinted blue and purple that rises up against his skin. Gavin could’ve healed them over, could’ve made them disappear, but they stayed. The minutes ticked by with Nines lapping at his chest, toying with his nipples and every mark- every bite and suckle, the imprints; they all stayed. He preened at that and nuzzled his face, leaving steady kisses in his wake as he moved from spot to spot on the GV. 

 

His hand slithered down, caressing whatever it could before snaking around to Gavin’s front and pressing on the bugle in his new pants. The sharp hiss he got was enough encouragement to keep going. 

 

Now, Nines knew Gavin was particularly sensitive. Whether it be the Traci coding within him, or the trauma left all over his body, but he thought it was a wonderful thing. And he wouldn’t change it, not in a million years. 

 

As he palmed Gavin through his jeans, the arch and whimper that resulted was better then any symphony Nines has ever heard. It bordered on breathy, turned and echoed around the walls as Nines bit down hard on the expanse of the model’s collarbone. Gavin tried to stifle his cry by swiveling his head to the side and biting on his fist, hips stuttering to push himself more into Nines’s hand. 

 

Just below his fingertips, the RK feels a certain wetness stain the denim. He hums, palms harder at Gavin’s dick, and swirls his tongue around the GV’s neck as he ponders for a moment. And then he remembers- back at the laboratory, the slick that drizzled down his thighs and gushed when Nines teased him for too long. Lubricant, making himself ready for any sexual conduction. Nines tried not to be smug about it, about causing such a thing that Gavin might not be in total control over, but it was enough to boost the RK’s ego. 

 

His hand slipped into the waistband, Gavin’s elated breathing shook his chest and he whined once fingers danced across his bare skin. Nines saddled closer to his face, peppered kisses across his forehead and down his nose, freckled his cheeks and left a few over his lips. Blue clouded the model’s olive skin, tinting it in his blush as he attempted to squirm away from the android- but not far away. No, just enough to duck and cover his face. Nines thought it was cute more then anything else, only just a tad disappointing. 

 

His hand wrapped around the other’s cock, Nines relishing the resound gasp that flew right past Gavin’s lips, and he dragged his hand up the length of it. He made sure his hold was tight enough, that he flicked his wrist smoothly as he pumped down and then flickered back up. Gavin’s gave a soft groan and Nines felt more then saw the model against his legs, letting them slide open more. The RK couldn’t stop his smile, couldn’t stop words from flying out his own mouth. 

 

“Beautiful,” Nines murmurs. It’s a low sound, his voice tends to make a change in octave that he doesn’t understand. But he likes how it makes Gavin shudder against him, press his body close and rut his hips up into the RK’s hand. He has to take in a breath of his own to cool his systems, they simply heat up way too fast whenever Gavin’s involved, “You’re so wonderful, so lovely.”

 

“Sh-Shut up.” Gavin groans it and Nines let’s his hand speed up. He’s monitoring the GV’s vitals and he can actively see how much slick is trailing past his inner thighs, keep track of his mock heartbeat as it thumps widely inside his chest at the words. Gavin must not be used to praise, and the idea makes Nines a little sad. 

 

Someone so perfect, so flawless and divine; used, degraded, hurt. The android’s upset on Gavin’s behalf. Furious, his wrists snap faster, moving quicker as he works the GV’s dick. Gavin’s squirming from under him, eyebrows knotted as his jaw hangs open. 

 

One of Gavin’s hands taps at Nines’s shoulder, half clawing into it and half pushing it away. “Wait, wait- Nines, shit- okay, ‘m gonna fuckin’ cum-“

 

“Then cum.” He chimes. Nines has made up his mind, he’s decided and plans on carrying his plan out. All the way through till the very end. 

 

He wants Gavin to feel good, amazing even. The best he’s ever felt. He wants to give Gavin the world, the stars, and all of the rest of the universe. He wants for Gavin to be taken care of as much as he took care of other people- how he had taken care of Nines the previous morning without batting an eyelash and didn’t expect a thing in return. How he had rushed Nines off and didn’t, not for a second, think about himself and his own needs. 

 

As Gavin came with a deafening cry, hips jerking and back lifting up off of the floor for that extra push closer- Nines rubbed at his hips. Calming the little trembles that trekked up and down the model’s body before Gavin huffed out a sight, slumping on to the floor. And before Gavin had the chance to look at him, before he could shift or move to try and do something for Nines in return- his preconstruction informed him of that high probability- he let his hand drop further down. 

 

A hot pant left the model’s lips, a little jolt zipping through his spine once he felt Nines’ fingertips dancing along his inner thighs and gathering the gushing slick that pool out of his entrance. It was a pretty sight, or he thought so at least. Leaving fleeting little bites around the inside of his legs and humming when he noticed more trickling out, indicting that Gavin was very much so fucking aroused by him. Nines rather liked the tell. 

 

“Stunning,” The RK chirped. His finger circled the tight ring of muscle before he pushed it in, savoring the sultry ‘haaah’ of a stuttering moan that fell from Gavin’s mouth. It was beautiful how he cowered and shook when Nines’s finger pulled out and ushered back inside, curling, right down to his knuckle. The other’s toes curled, hips pushing him further down- as far down as he could go before Nines let took it back out. 

 

Gavin whimpered, face absolutely flushed blue and regulator elevated in it’s beating. The RK wondered what it’d be like to taste him, he considered the thought, liked the idea. 

 

He glanced up to watch Gavin’s face, sliding his finger back in and working him out. Going steady enough before just slightly picking up the slack, jutting the digit harder during certain intervals. The way he moaned and cried, hands gripping and trying to fist in anything around them completely desperate and dire. He suppresses the urge to claim his lips- the lovely cries and choked groans would be stifled, muffled and Nines honestly didn’t want that. Not this time. 

 

_“Phck!”_ Gavin sobs when Nines lets a second finger join him, scissoring him open and stretching him. It’s so sinful how a gush of lubricate drips past his fingers, down his wrist and he’s so fucking tempted to lean down and taste it. To curl his tongue inside that perky little ass and let the model ride his face however he wanted. He really had half a mind to do it- but he held himself back. Kept himself in check. 

 

Nines couldn’t tell how he managed, but he kept his composure. Instead curling his slender fingers inside Gavin, the GV is so responsive. So sensitive, he can tell with the way his arms twitch and his hand clings to the carpet. How he can’t decide if he wants to roll his hips further down the RK’s fingers or shy away from them, but never stuttering in their need for the attention. 

 

He’s whimpering, mewling and Nines watches his face contort in endless pleasure while he’s fingered open, how the slick streams down his thighs and Nines’ own fingers and he’s stammering. Babbling incoherent words that sound similar to his name and other filthy words, compliments stacked on pleas. 

 

The android lowers himself, drapes his frame past Gavin’s chest- firstly not without biting his way down and sucking more marks into his skin. Then he lets his lips part and takes the tip of the model’s hard cock into his mouth, swirling his tongue over the rosy head and purring at the pornographic and loud moan. The grunts and gasps- it’s all pure liquor, making Nines get drunk off the noises alone. 

 

He’s plunging his fingers in faster, letting his head bob up and down, slurping around the dick in his mouth. Saving all the broken begs and promising cries Gavin makes before he feel the GV’s ejaculate spill down his throat. His eyes flicker back up to the other and he’s quite pleased by the pure bliss that’s reflected there. 

 

Gavin’s eyes are screwed shut, tight as is his muscles that clench down around the digits inside him. His body quakes and his jaw hangs wide open- at first there isn’t any noise, just mindless shaking and Nines has to let his hand abandon it’s task of the senseless fingering to hold Gavin’s hips still, keep his body rooted to the ground. Afterwards there’s a sharp cry, so loud and lewd and beautiful that Nines is a bit concerned about his vocal modulator. The static is layered, crisp in it’s tone as it pierces the air. 

 

He laps, swallows, and licks around the softening cock. Easing Gavin out of his afterglow, stimulating the worked nerves and the small stuttering gasps and pants make his sensor override themselves. 

 

“Phck, Nines- _please,_ can’t, mmm-“ His body jerks, a little spasm as the RK gave a final and hard suck before he popped off. Pressing a tender kiss to the head of it before mouthing at the prominent hipbones. He kisses and nips his way up, cherishing the jolts and soft, quiet moans of overstimulation that Gavin makes. 

 

“Thank you, Gavin.” Nines sighs it. His hands massaging the tension from the models weary faux muscles, the shaking gone as the GV slumps boneless on the floor. He looks dazed, blissed out, lips a bit puckered from the punishment he gave them. 

 

“God- you’re too good with that tongue.” Is his resulting answer. Nines snorts, picking up the earlier mischief he saw in those pooling greens and letting said limb flicker out in show. 

 

He’s very pleased when Gavin looks at the appendage and shudders, pupils possibly overgrowing the green iris around his eyes- legs lock tight around Nines’s waist. Probably a favorite for the other to do. He doesn’t mind in the slightest. 

 

“Don’t start somethin’ you can’t finish.” The GV warns him, sucking in a breath and attempting to pull Nines closer with simple, weak movements. But the RK obliges anyway. 

 

“Who ever said I wasn’t capable of finishing?” 

 

“Me.” Gavin grins, hands coming up to frame the android’s face and bring it closer to his lips. They’re inches apart, arms snake around Nines’s neck. He likes, very much so likes, the promise laced into that single word. The baited pause he has. 

 

“I hope you’ll find you’re mistaken.” And really, it wasn’t his fault if he stumbled into the station the next day a bit distracted. Especially if he could come home to something like this. Nines grabs at strong legs, positions them to rest over his shoulders as he maneuvers himself to his knees- bending the model in half. 

 

Gavin snickers, something tugs at the RK’s belt and he isn’t at all surprised to know that it’s no one besides the beautiful bot beneath him. “Prove me wrong.”

 

“I will.”

 

Neither can untangle from the other and Nines gets no sleep that night. Not that he cares.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was away all day Tuesday and planning that Monday- but I’m here with the update, better late then never, right??
> 
>  
> 
> Please let me know your thoughts!!! And where you think things might be going ;)


	17. Wounds new and old

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I love you.” Nines whispers it across his skin, gentle and soft.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _ **Warning!!!!**_  
>  Mentions of past abuse this chapter, preceded with caution!

Nines is at his desk, patiently going through the small notes he’s gathered about Gavin during this case. He is careful to exclude anything too personal and omits a few vital things for the safety of the model’s trust. He elects to start from the very beginning, going through the very first notes he had ever taken about the model. 

 

_**[Possible Contingencies. ]**_  
 _ **-Denied Speech.**_  
 _ **-Gavin Worked Manually.**_  
 _ **-Security Model.**_  
_**;Sub. Settings Details Domestic,**_  
 _ **Hostess, Sexual Partner, Mechanic.**_

 

He thumbs along the stem of one of his succulents. The texture of the plant soothes and settles the rage that tries to flare up, just a bit- enough for him to focus on his work and continue to sort through his personal notes. Though nasty humans continued to test his patience. The day he could bring them to justice is the day he will be happiest. He is certain. And to give Gavin that relief- it is all too good a goal.

 

_**-Easily Stressed.** _   
_**;Sub. Hostile.** _   
_**-Gavin Has Bonded With Officer Chen.** _   
_**-GV200 Does Not Respect Captain Fowler.** _

 

He uploaded the memories Gavin had given him into a private drive, unaccessible unless Nines himself opened it or had given strict permission, even then- it’d be under scrutinous watch. Oh, the things he knew now. The amount of information at his fingertips; he felt on top of the world. He knew Gavin better then anyone. 

 

The RK toyed with more of the small petals, they rubbed easy under his finger pads, feeling rather lovely to his touch sensors stationed there. He wasn’t sure why, or if he had received such a strange habit from Connor, but spending some time with his plants made him feel calmer. Taking care of them, tending to them; it made him feel lighter, made things less hectic inside of his processors. 

 

His databanks informed him, after he had looked it up, that Nines had adapted a coping mechanism. And, a rather healthy and positive one at that. Which was nice, truly it was, and Nines was happy to see that his small purchase of more additional friends to his desk had arrived. Already they were showing signs of sprouting, of growth and greenery. 

 

It brought a smile to his face. 

 

Nines thought about Gavin, and his smile grew. 

 

Perhaps, he should introduce this habit to the GV. It could pose as something beneficial- maybe it might soothe Gavin’s overstimulated sensors or help to balance his mountainous trauma. It was worth a shot, worth the effort. The RK wasn’t entirely certain if the type of succulent counted, or if he should try and get an actual houseplant with colorful flowering buds and vines, big leafy greens casting shadows inside of his dulled home. The kinds with fat stems and petals, with withering browns when the sun grew too hot or if he should stick to something easier, like a cactus. 

 

The idea really doesn’t sound too bad to him. He thinks it is a marvelous thought, his programs aiding him as he thought and shooting him a high probability of a positive outcome. He’ll start off small, if it’s a success, he’ll get a bigger plant and then go from there. 

 

What a good plan, indeed. 

 

Nines is a bit excited, which is now a usual for him, to return home. 

______________________________________

 

The work days pass, the closer it gets to the end of his shift, the longer it seems to feel. He spent the time reviewing reports and making corrections to exaggerated details, imperfect grammar, and labeling the correct android designations along with the proper dates belonging to each case. There’s still more time to spare, to kill- and the captain refuses to give him another case to focus on. The human wanted all the RK’s programs and attention fully dedicated to the case at hand, which Nines understood. He was worried about the solving percentage of the station. 

 

And Nines has the perfect excuse to see Gavin whenever he wanted, talk about Gavin as much as he desired, spend the entire day by his side if he felt like it would ‘help progress the investigation.’ He really just wanted to do that anyway, without an obligation, without the pressure of work, he’d do it gladly. 

 

He sends Tina a few of the photos he’s captured inside of his endless files of the GV; moments of him smiling, in the clothes she had given him, with drenched hair, even a few of him arguing with a cherry-blue face. She saved them, made one her screensaver, and cooed about it for a couple minutes with him. But then she had grabbed his hand, her thumb swiping over a knuckle and he felt every barrier he had built up over the last few months break down around her, at the action. How ludicrous. How _deviant._

 

He was alive.

 

She stared at him with the same patient smile she had flashed Gavin all those weeks ago, he watched the joy sparkling in her honeyed eyes. Her cheeks dimpled, eyes so kind and sweet, gazing at him softly. Warmly. And then she whispered, “He makes you happy, doesn’t he?” 

 

Nines doesn’t know what to say. Well, that wouldn’t be an accurate statement. He knows what he wants to say, what he wants to yell and admit to. But he cannot. For fear of jeopardizing himself and his beautiful model at home, he tries to remind himself that Tina is not a threat, that she is not a danger to either of them. He wants to hold on tight to his secret, their secret. It burns inside of his chest and wraps around his throat. He’s choked up, eyes drifting down to look at their conjoined point of contact- it’s so nice. So welcoming and inviting. 

 

Nines isn’t as strong as Gavin, he’s never kept a secret before. Never had a reason to before. It’s his weakness, the gentle caress against his skin, that has him gasping a quiet. “Yes.”

 

“I can tell.” She grins, fingers curling around his hand and drawing him deeper into a comforting sense of security he’s never had before. “You make each other happy.”

 

“You aren’t,” Nines pauses. He’s searching for the correct word without confirming any accusations she might have. He could be wrong, he could be admitting to something different, he needed to be safe. To be right- but he desperately wished to call Tina in on his secret. “-you aren’t opposed?” 

 

“Opposed?” She snorts, leaning back on her chair and her other hand flies to the notebook. Tina flips it open and her fingers skim the inked words Gavin left. “Not at all. From the time we’ve spent as partners, I know you’re a sweetie. I know you’re _alive._ You’re a good man, Nines, an even better detective. You’re working hard- I see that, so if you ever need me, for _anything._ Say the word.” 

 

Nines runs his social relations program, hoping he isn’t reading into the wrong hidden meaning. It supplies him with the confirmation that he had been right. Tina was offering to cover for them, should the need arise. He’s overcome with a new emotion- it makes something behind his eyes surge, water. It’s water. Crying; the emotional execution of overwhelming codes. He wants to cry small, little, happy tears, he’s never cried before. It’s new. But welcomed. He decides to suppress it, however, and gives her a grin of his own. Taking her hand into his and giving it a squeeze. 

 

“Thank you.” 

 

“Go home to him,” Tina lets him go. He misses her grip already. How strange, but how nice a feeling. 

 

He nods and does just that. 

______________________________________

 

Pressing his palm to the scanner, Nines enters his apartment. 

 

As he steps in, he’s quick to shrug off his coat, knowing that both him and Gavin prefer it off. It saves time, but also is more comfortable incase they decide to press close together. He had bought some small plant friends to decorate his home- he should ask Gavin to pick something out, too. It could boost moral, make the place more homey to him. More....welcome. He doesn’t miss the little yearning stares Gavin sometimes gives, the hurt that flashed right across his face every time he runs his hand across a wall or slides his bare foot along the carpet. 

 

Gavin was waiting for him, came right up to Nines and grabbed at his hands and pulled him along. The RK is charmed, happily goes along and listens to the little babbling statements. 

 

“-sitting there, right? This big ass bird sits right there! Nines, it’s so fat! How do they get that phckin’ big? Who’s feedin’ them that much!” The GV chirps and they both wonder towards the balcony. 

 

Just as he had snickered about, Nines is met face to face with the pigeon. It was incredibly big, well fed. He wonders if Gavin has ever experienced much animal life, if not, he should fix that. He watches it as it bounces along the railing, cooing at both androids. It’s obviously docile. Must be tamed to a degree so it must have another person tending to it quite often. Especially for it to acquire such a size, impressive. Oddly impressive.

 

“It is very big indeed.” Nines agreed. He notes that Gavin doesn’t let his right wrist go so he slips his fingers inside the other’s, is met with an instant response of calloused hand coiling right back. 

 

“ ‘s weird.” Gavin mumbles, a nice happy trill to his tone. 

 

“I have something for you.” Nines decided to blurt out, already picturing the exact spot he’d like to put the small potted plant. Maybe they could get a bird after since Gavin is expressing an interest.

 

“You don’t have to buy me shit.” Is his immediate protest. 

 

“I like to.” 

 

“You’re weird.” 

 

“I thought I was handsome.” Nines pretends to frown.

 

“Maybe.” Gavin squints, before cackling and turning around to face him, neglecting the pigeon he’d been watching for hours. “What is it, then?” 

 

Nines shows him the succulent, quite proud of the small thing. 

 

At first, the model is silent. His brows whirl upwards, quirking in question as he slowly takes it, turns the pot around in his hands. The RK is certain that Gavin would like it, glues his confidence to his artificial heart and waits for the other’s opinion. 

 

“I was hoping to help you with your anxieties. You seem to convert yourself to sexual relations when pressed with emotions. And while it is a safe practice with me, I’d like to gently nudge you away from it for future occurrences.” He doesn’t want to admit it, nor does he want to say it out loud and risk his beautiful model descending into another attack. But Nines might not catch every episode of his, might not be able to quell it in it’s entirety. 

 

He’d like to, more then anything. He’d like to be able to take all of Gavin’s pain away however he can but he knows he’s not the most suitable person for the job. Nines won’t let his stubborn pride get in his way and become the reason for Gavin's downfall. 

 

“I often find tending to something that needs me is a great relaxer. It helps to calibrate a few of my programs as well, perfect for diagnostics and other necessities. Of course, if this does not work for you- it does not have to be forced upon you. In whatever way you choose to cope, I will help reinstate it. But it must be healthy.” 

 

“You got me a fuckin’ plant.” Gavin mutters. The RK can tell his jaw is a bit clenched, sees the influx of water vapor collecting inside his emerald eyes. “To help me.”

 

“Of course.” 

 

The RK doesn’t expect to be dragged down, doesn’t have the time to preconstruct the arms snaking around him in a vice hold and squeezing him hard. He feels rather then sees the model shake as his face disappears into the throngs of fabric on the android. His own hands slowly find their way around him, patting his back and playing halfheartedly with his hair. 

 

“You’re such a damn nerd.” The GV’s voice wavers, just slightly, so he lets the model cling onto him. Gavin only takes a second, a mere moment to gather himself up- breathing hard through his nose before he surges back up. Grabbing Nines by the front of his shirt and dragging him back inside. “Where do we put it?”

 

“Wherever you’d like.” Nines answers, a bit taken aback by the new vigor inside the model’s steps. “Might I suggest the living room?”

 

“Hell no! That’s too basic- how about the kitchen?” Gavin’s grinning as he treks them both around the home. 

 

“We rarely enter the kitchen.” 

 

“Exactly! Now we have a reason to go in there!” Gavin counters, all smiles as he places the plant on the countertop and simply stares at it from over the marble finish. “Now what?”

 

“What do you mean?” Nines turns to see Gavin still openly staring at the succulent, his hand comes up and prods at the small stems. His touch is delicate, gentle; it makes the RK smile. 

 

“Like, what am I suppose to do? How do I take care of it and cope and shit?”

 

Nines leans down and rests his elbows on the counter, his head tilts to the side until it’s easing onto Gavin’s own. He feels the other put his own weight into the action, hunching over the kitchen’s marble and brushing his hand across the RK’s side. The android is delighted to feel so domestic in the moment. 

 

“You need to plant it in a pot that has medium rocks at the bottom, then moss in the middle and the proper soil on top. Succulents do not need much hydration. But plant life does thrive upon conversation, it can be a sort of therapeutic experience I find."

 

“So....I’m suppose to talk to it? And like, fix it up?” 

 

“Not right now, if you don’t want to.” His hand goes to Gavin’s back, a notion he hopes is comforting, and rubs the faux muscles that had tensed there. 

 

He feels the GV relax under his touch, which brings a bubbly feeling to the android’s wires. And they stare at it for a long moment. Gavin’s LED glows a steady amber, dipping into red on the occasion and Nines tries not to mind it, but it eats at him. He wants to understand what it is that is so suddenly stressing and wants to be able to correct it before it has the chance to grow into something scarier. But Gavin just leans more onto the countertop, presses his cheek into the cold tile and stares at the plant. 

 

The skin around his fingers peel back; it blinks at first, blotchy little increments, before it seems to shut off sporadically around his hand and wrist. Nines sees the scars marred into the chassis, he attempts to soothe his own emotions by continuing the ministration on his model’s back. 

 

Gavin just takes the leafy stems under his fingertips and traces along until he slides his strokes backwards. Feeling it, processing the sensation, taking in the peaceful silence as Nines stands near. 

 

Eventually, after an insistent urge inside his programs, Nines wraps his arms around Gavin and rests his head on the GV’s shoulder blades- he just needed the touch. He just needed to be close and near, needed to convey he was available if Gavin so needed. He feels a simulated breath leave his model, heavy and drawn out. Nines soothes it, or attempts to, with a small nuzzle. 

 

They take each other in, just like that. Silent, but within contact. Until-

 

“Hey, Nines?”

 

“Yes?”

 

A lingering pause. “ ‘member when Connor asked me how I got my scar? On, uh, on my face?”

 

_“The scar on your nose there,” RK800 paused to trace it on his own face. “How did you get it?”_

 

“Yes, I recall it.” He pressed a kiss to the back of Gavin’s neck, up over the port for maintenance. “Would you like to talk about it?”

 

“They tried to take half my phckin’ face off- my, uh, my eyes.”

 

“And what, if it’s alright to ask, stopped them?”

 

Gavin swallows, Nines feels a hand tapping over his own laced over the GV’s stomach. He lets Gavin grab one of his hands and twine their fingers together- his is shaking, clutching onto the RK’s tightly. 

 

“My screaming.”

 

He doesn’t even have to accept the interface, doesn’t swipe at the notification, they connect automatically and Nines has to suppress the love that threatens to flow out of him. 

 

He now understand why those three words were so powerful. But he cannot say them, not yet.

______________________________________

 

_“Stay still!” Came the command through clenched teeth, a sharp and threatening hiss as a hand mushed his face onto the soiled floor._

 

_He obeyed, the chains around his wrists cutting unkindly into his chassis._

 

_“Better.” The bastard mewed, all pleasant, Gavin felt a hand pat at his thighs- it was suppose to make him feel good, but he fucking hated it. Disgust inched up his processor, coating all of his systems in a sticky substance._

 

_More sparks flew out from his leg, the opened panel cracking and collecting dust as the fucker played around inside his circuitry. It was uncomfortable, downright painful, but Gavin had grown used to it. His tolerance was high and he was determined not to be another fucking form of entertainment to this bastard. He refused to writhe and squirm under their meaty paws._

 

_**[Error; Detachment Of Main Sensory Connectors. ]** _

 

_He bit his lip. Forced himself to think of Natalie’s hand instead of the human’s. Focused on how lovely it was going to feel once they threw him back inside the cell, how nice the ropes would feel as a contrast to this spiked metal._

 

_**[Error; Stability Rod Disconnected. ]** _

 

_His leg felt like lead, which was ironic, all things considered._

 

_No feeling or input or just about anything happened inside his limb, just like his hand. The only thing he could have any diagnostic from it was the level of thirium he was currently loosing. It falling and staining the floor in steady streams as a knife severed more wires and fucked around with the joints._

 

_**[Error; Displacement Of System Feedback. ]** _

 

_**[Error; Overheating Detected. ]** _

 

_**[Error; System Fracture. Rerouting. ]** _

 

_**[Error; Computer Analysis Disconnected. ]** _

 

_Gavin felt lightheaded, dizzy. He didn’t think he could survive this if it continued, and the thought of dying didn’t sound too bad. He hoped if he did, Natalie would be okay._

 

_“All finished.” They purred and unhooked the chain from the model’s wrists. They knew that Gavin wasn’t capable of anything in his state, had made sure of it._

 

_Nines gets a clear picture of the captor’s face this time. Stores it inside his files to run a check on later._

 

_“I’m fucking starving.” They announce before leaning over the GV- who hasn’t moved an inch. “Fetch me dinner.”_

 

_Gavin’s chest puffed up, a fear lacing through every mainframe. He couldn’t- it wasn’t possible for him to be able to stand, much less walk his ass up the stairs and get the fucking platter of food and make it back. He was fucked. Thoroughly. There was no fucking way, they knew it. They fucking knew it. They were fucking with him, this was just for their damn amusement. It sucked to always be the butt end of a joke, but it sucked worse to get punished because of it._

 

_Fuck._

 

_He couldn’t disobey, he couldn’t do anything. He had to follow the order. He had to. What the fuck was he suppose to do- failure meant punishment. Dismemberment, or further dismemberment in his case. He was quaking, gathering himself up into a sitting position and they watched him. Hungry for his ultimate fall._

 

_After a beat, Gavin forced himself to move. Forced his good leg to handle most of his weight. He was shaky standing up, unsteady and unbalanced as the low thirium levels messed with his head. He was going to collapse, he just knew it. But he had to press on- had to._

 

_“Hurry up!” They barked and shoved him. A loud, metallic clang rang out as Gavin met the floor with a crunch, his unresponsive hand doing little to break the collision as his leg skidded unceremoniously on the ground. That’d mark up his shoulder, he was positive. “I ain’t got all day!”_

 

_It took a lot to get back on his feet- foot, the one foot still connected to his systems. But he managed._

 

_He had to divert a lot of processing power, dwindle a lot of electronic output and minimize his thirium regulation to keep himself from shutting down. Gavin hobbled towards the steps, almost slipped up on his own blood and that of other androids around him, but he made it. He was heaving, trying to take in the cold air in the space encasing him and hoped it cooled some systems before he could get another alert. It was one of the only times he liked the chill._

 

_He put his hand on the railing, the one that still responded to his commands- jumped and covered a cry of pain at the spark that jostled his disconnected limb. The fucker didn’t even cap the wires, just blindly botched them. This was going to be a new kind of hell._

 

_He went for the next step, felt the thirium slosh out and coat the polished stairs. He tried not to gasp as the next spark coiled and burned against a sensor for registering touch, charring the circuitry. He almost crumpled at the stabbing pain, hunched but caught himself last moment. He dragged his limp leg, stilled on the step and heaved in cold air, willing the dizziness to go away._

 

_He tried to jump on the next one, he tried to stay balanced- but he messed up. And before Gavin could catch himself he was sent floundering down the stairs, every edge hitting his spine and busting the white off of his exposed panel. He vibrated with the pain that flashed everywhere, crumpled on the bottom floor and noiseless panted, without a cry he so desperately wanted to release. The tears collected in the corners of his eyes, he didn’t even know he could cry. He felt them drip and leak down his face, his chin, and collect onto the floor. Turning the thirium watery as he sucked up more biting frost._

 

_The human lurched to his side and grabbed at his face, nails digging into his cheeks as his head was retched back._

 

_Gavin felt scared, more fear then he ever thought was possible drooling out of his systems. He tried to scramble up, to try again to fetch the food like a dog but he was yanked back and roughly slammed onto the steps. It pounded against his regulator, making him freeze dead in his tracks._

 

_“Useless. You’re so fucking useless!” They hollered and sent a brassed-up fist towards the GV’s face. He tried not to flinch. “Can’t do a damn thing right, can ya?”_

 

_Gavin whimpered._

 

_“Shut it, rat. Now you know what’s gonna happen.” They growled and dragged him over to the center of the room._

 

_Gavin’s breath hitched, he cowers into the corner and tries to melt into the metal walls. How good would it be to be dead, or unconscious. How amazing would it feel to be an emotionless robot, a machine who didn’t mind all this bullshit. He was hyperventilating, trembling, absolutely dreading what was to come._

 

_They hovered over him, a sharpened weapon in hand and Gavin whimpers. The tears fall and fall, his hand powerless to defend himself as he braces for the impact and-_

 

Nines cuts the memory off before it can go any further. 

 

He holds Gavin close against him, absorbing the shock and terror into his own mainframe and he finds that the model is staring at the plant. 

 

Running his fingers over it’s leafy greens and willing his stress levels to remain as they were, without the hitching up and sporadically rise. And Nines loves him for it. Loves that Gavin is taking his suggestion, is trying to adopt the mechanism, is holding onto the RK with a nurturing grip that’s just shy of vice. He’s not looking at the android, but he focuses on the live plant in front of him. 

 

And Nines knows it’s not easy. 

 

He knows it’s difficult and can feel the silent tremble that’s stills inside the GV’s frame. He understands the frightening grip in such a dire situation, and he loves that Gavin can get himself through it. 

 

That he has gotten himself out, somehow. 

 

He’s strong, and Nines loves that about him. He’s persistent and spiteful and so incredibly determined to keep living- to stay alive, and he admires that. 

 

Three very powerful words.

 

They’re only three, tingling along their open connection. 

 

He knows Gavin hears them, knows that it coats Gavin’s systems and programs like a warm hand, and underneath him he tenses. 

 

“I love you.” Nines whispers it across his skin, gentle and soft.

 

It’s just three words. 

 

Gavin rips himself away, gapes at Nines like he’s insane- as if he turned into one of the model’s oppressors ready to collect on unmarried plans. 

 

Nines’s hands falter where they once felt the warmth, his brows knit in worry. 

 

Three easy words, and Gavin runs.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cliffhanger!!!!  
> Call me an evil shithead but I just had to!!
> 
> I bet you have a looooott of concerns, but from here on out; there’s trouble!
> 
> And some of your earlier questions will be answered pretty soon, maybe not how you’d think tho~


	18. Careful; the ivy has ears

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Someone told me to talk to plants,” Nines begins. This time; Gavin’s baited on his words. “And to tell them how I feel when I feel it.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and we bring you back to your regularly scheduled programming, more after these commercials.

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:15pm)_   
_I believe I have made a mistake._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:15pm)_   
_Oh? Interesting._

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:15pm)_   
_I’m being serious._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:16pm)_   
_Apologies._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:16pm)_   
_What is it that you’ve done?_

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:16pm)_   
_I think I have done detrimental damage_   
_in my relations with the GV200._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:17pm)_   
_I am quite sure there is no_   
_amount of damage that cannot be_   
_undone._

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:17pm)_   
_I beg to differ._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:17pm)_   
_Do not be negative, brother._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:18pm)_   
_What did you do, precisely?_

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:18pm)_   
_Said something I should not have._

 

_ **Connor** _   
_(7:18pm)_   
_Mind Palace._

 

_ **RK-87** _   
_(7:19pm)_   
_As you wish._

______________________________________

 

Nines steps into the zen garden, it’s snowing, quite heavily. Strong winds billowing against the trees and turning the ground icy and frozen below his feet. 

 

He’s on the steps and they’re slippery. He walks with as much grace as he can, not feeling quite as into the regal posture as he might usually be, and he walks to the center of the garden. The roses have iced over and turn fragile, at the slightest touch, they might crack and break into dozens of minuscule pieces. He finds that the notion is fitting for how he currently feels. 

 

Connor reaches the steps, offering a warm ray of sun and heat to the ice that seems to glaze over the RK. And at his smile; brown eyes swimming, tiny dimples placed on each side, hands outstretched and a clean grace in offer-

 

Nines crumples. 

 

He falls onto his knees and feels Connor catch him just as the snow touched his slacks, pulls him to his side and covers the red LED at his temple. 

 

His predecessor doesn’t ask any questions, but keeps supplying the sun. Keeps generating the heat that melts the snow and brings the roses to life, puts the song back into the simulated bird’s beaks and moves the clouds above their heads. Nines has no idea how to start, he has no clue how he could even say a thing about everything- about now. He just knows he wants to be silent forever, that he wants to mindlessly babble the hours away, some form of both and neither. 

 

“What is it that you’ve told him, Nines?” Connor questions and the android sees the water running, a bit fragmented in the blocky patches of ice inside of it. 

 

“The truth.” 

 

“As much as I’d like to humor you and your vague philosophy, there is not much I can do with such a negatively congested statement.”

 

Analytical. Practical. _Sensible._

 

Nines takes in a stuttering breath, holds it until his artificial lungs are full, and releases it into the arctic air. 

 

“I ask again; what did you say?” A hand works the kinks out of his shoulder. 

 

“I told him....” Nines looks at the beautiful koi fish, simply minding their own business and swimming about. He envies that, knows that Connor can feel the jealousy inside the garden as the shadows grow darker with intent. “I told him that I loved him, Connor.”

 

And he lets the memories wash over his predecessor, all the instances he’s saved for secret reviews, all the times he categorized whenever his regulator would beat irregularly, all the times his biocomponents rose a degree in heat. Every instance where he felt a fluttery feeling inside his chest, when he got to snuggle close to Gavin, and even the run in with Perkins. He lets Connor see it all, lets Connor feel the indescribable mountain of emotions he’s gathered all in regards to a suspect he never should’ve fell into bed with. 

 

He wants to say he regrets it, that he wouldn’t do it again. But then he’d be lying. 

 

He would, in a hundred different ways, in a million different times- Nines would end up in the very same situation he managed to make a mess of. He’d kiss Gavin just the same, if not more, with more depth and devotion into it. He’d fall into stasis with him, with his arms tighter around his waist and pull him closer, he’d do more. Give more, whatever he could and didn’t already do. It was entirely foolish to be so caught up in another being, to have so much attachment to someone. He couldn’t fathom it. But Nines can’t regret Gavin, because the model made him feel more alive then he’s ever considered possible, opened his eyes in dozens of ways. 

 

Gavin was his first love, and now, his first heartbreak. 

 

And ra9, did it _hurt._

 

“As I said before,” Connor offers as an anchor. He sends his brother feelings of calmness and serenity, hoping to smolder the tidal wave of emotions that crushes them both. “There is always a way to remedy a situation.”

 

“What if I can’t fix this?”

 

“We will. It is not a matter of if, you sound too human.” The other RK smiles, small and gentle until Nines looks elsewhere. “I’m proud of you.”

 

Nines sighs, shrinking into himself, wrapping his arms and warming up his artificial skin. The sun starts to come out and shine onto the roses once more, a bit of the rays hitting him on the back and providing a bit of heat to the previous chills. “How am I suppose to take back my feelings?”

 

“You can’t.” He groans, finding another reason to envy the koi. They aren’t even capable of speech, they could never create such a blunder. They could never fracture a beautiful spell of dizzying perfection like he had done. They could not make a, as Gavin would say, _fuck up._ “But, you can always put up boundaries. Communicate with him, Nines. I’m sure that’s all you two need to do.”

 

Nines is hesitant, but he knows the reason behind the words are sound. He’s a bit on edge, a little scared, but the longer he remains inside his head the longer the situation grows messier. 

 

After he sat in his predecessor’s company for a heartbeat longer, Nines fixes his coat and brushes his hair back into it’s styled perfection. His voice is pitiful and velvet when he finally croaks: “Thank you, Connor.”

 

“Happy to be of assistance.” 

 

With that, Connor pats his shoulder and levels him with another tiny smile. Nines would like to give it back, earnest and just as fluid. But he knows that he cannot. Not in the moment. 

 

He exits the Zen garden with the image of it tucked close to his pump.

______________________________________

 

The comfort fades as he lapses back into the world. The biting frost is also a noticeable difference, it’s not here anymore. In fact, it’s warm inside the house. Warm because Nines doesn’t want Gavin to ever feel so cold again, as he’d felt before. So he puts in that effort to have the temperatures be higher to avoid the chill. And it startled his sensors- ones that were tricked into thinking they’d been iced over jump starting in tandem shock. He feels morbid. 

 

As he stands there in his long sleeved button up, he wonders, if he should still feel a bit cold. And he wondered if Gavin felt it too. 

 

He planned on going to Gavin’s door, thought it over for a second because he didn’t want to overstep. Didn’t want to push where he wasn’t wanted, trigger something they both didn’t name, or possibly make this situation worse than it was. But Connor had spoken against his hesitance, so Nines forces himself to agree with it and progresses forward. He doesn’t necessarily want to follow through with the plan, it’s probability wasn’t high enough. Wasn’t 100% and that small chance of rejection was just as frightening as the threat of a permanent shutdown.

 

Every step feels like it shakes the house, feels like it vibrates the walls and shadows spark against his back. He can feel the imaginary blood seeping on to the carpeted floor, staining the material, and dancing up and down the wall. It takes him a moment to realize it’s his programming attempting to trick him, attempting to get him to use it, trying to make him go total machine. It reminds him that he never wanted to be deviant, never asked for the emotional rollercoaster he’s feeling, but he can’t seem to ask for it to be taken back. He’s a deviant now, capable of loving and receiving love-

 

As contradictory as the statement was. He wants to be able to have feelings, for Gavin. 

 

_**[ERROR. ]** _

 

Right. 

 

Nines swallows as he’s suddenly face to face with the designated door, the room he had set up for the GV. It makes him scared, which was ludicrous. Him? Scared of a door? Of what was behind it? He should laugh at the prospect. He really should, but anything besides a set grimace doesn’t even come close to making it on his face. Maybe weeks ago, a month possibly, he wouldn’t care so much. Would do as he pleased and follow the rules of the station, maybe have this case already solved. He might not be tiptoeing around quite as much. Fright; such a human emotion. His hand raises, pauses- he thinks ill of this. He thinks he should call Tina and have her clean this up. Make Gavin feel better since he no longer can. If Gavin no longer wanted him anymore. 

 

That thought makes his LED flash red, makes something lurch inside his chest. He hates it, resents it so much that he might just cower right back to Connor inside the garden. He could look at the roses, save them from the frost, and perhaps start another line of plants in the white fence. And maybe give Connor his succulents back, Nines has a feeling he won’t want to look at them for a long time. And-

 

Ra9, the precinct. If he fucked this up then he practically ruined the case- and Perkins? Oh. Oh.

 

He shouldn’t have been so reckless and done all of that. Plus, the captain might just give him a huge disciplinary, if he’s lucky. The case might just become more difficult, and Tina had been entirely close to getting any answer she wanted. The case was so close to being solved- he had a face! An identity! 

 

_**[Identity Match; Chase Lucas. ]**_  
_**-32y/o.**_  
_**-unmarried.**_  
_**-non relative family.**_  
_**-Employed. . | Linemen.**_  
 _ **{Currently; . . . . . | Missing. }**_  
 _ **Address; 234 Avalon Road.**_

 

He sends the information to Tina’s terminal, another to Connor, and the remaining assisting officers. The sent photo looks a bit dated on the suspect, taken when the man was in his teens. Nines suspects that was purposely done to evade the law. Smart, but also not entirely so. After all, technology has made a wonderful leap in recent years, he’s proof of that.

 

He wishes he had the other perpetrator. Then Nines could remedy the station- at least do one thing right here. 

 

He must have taken too long, waiting at Gavin’s door, because it swung open. He saw the model fill his lungs with air, puff his chest out in an act of false confidence and it took Nines back to a simpler time. When he could sit across from Gavin at the break room’s table and spit useless facts that no one had the reason for remembering- but the GV listened regardless. It’s apart of what made Nines feel less alone, less isolated, less alien. In a world of androids who fought for freedom- something he didn’t want in the first place- and humans with adapting morals and principles, fitting in was hard. Connor had witnessed the struggle himself and then bore it by watching the newer RK and how he had blundered around at the department. He hadn’t fought for freedom, hadn’t died for it. He didn’t fit in with Jericho and humans always looked at him strange. With fear, everyone had. Except Gavin.

 

He had liked the attention, the familiar air of ease. Gavin didn’t treat him as a traitor or someone he had to tiptoe around, after he had gotten used to Nines’ presence. He welcomed the RK and it had chipped something inside his circuits, something he knew could never be fixed. Because it wasn’t the machine part, it was the sentience. 

 

_**Stress Level: 44%** _

 

Gavin didn’t say a word but marched past Nines- whose fist was stuck frozen, half raised and ready to knock. 

 

He turned the corner fully ready to keep going but stopped, took in another gulp of air, and looked at Nines’ feet. The RK didn’t dare to move, too afraid and stressed himself. Those green eyes looked stormy and it was not a good look on the model. Nines didn’t like it even if it made his eyes shine. They flickered up and sliced right through the android when they met his own blues. Nines stopped all functions, bracing for something, anything. But then Gavin walked into the kitchen without waiting or doing much else. 

 

He heard the soft patters of the GV’s feet hitting the tile and it drew him to move, slowly following. 

 

Is this how Gavin felt inside the station? Like a ghost, silent and frightened, going through the motions as he tried to comprehend what will happen before it can unfold? Just blindly following anything in hopes it won’t bring forth more winds, more hurt. Nines absolutely resented the feeling, how could Gavin have stayed sane with it constantly badgering him?

 

He stops and peers into the kitchen, Gavin is seated on top of it. Exactly how he sits when Nines comes back home from work. The RK feels his chest clench, unfamiliar and painful. Perhaps he could pretend that everything was okay, that things weren’t quite so messed up. And Gavin has the potted plant in his shaky hands. Nines thinks he’ll smash it. Right in front of his face. His pump hurts, some type of agony he hasn’t yet felt- and one that hurts incredibly bad. 

 

“Someone told me,” Gavin spoke with an unsteady voice. “That talking to you would help me out.”

 

Nines frowns, willing his feet to move himself and leave the GV be. But something else, something stronger, compelled him to stay. Call it desperation or stubbornness. He doesn’t know. 

 

“Someone I- uh, that I know real well, told me somethin’ pretty important.” The model’s eyes glance at Nines, he can see the strain his hands go through. Trying not to crack the pot but staying somewhat firm enough to keep it from slipping out his grip. 

 

Nines leans on the wall, not trusting his knees that suddenly felt unreliable. A first, another thing he finds he dislikes. His joints were fine. But they didn’t feel optimal. He’d look up why but anything that took him from the moment was frowned upon. He didn’t want the distraction.

 

Gavin looks back at the succulent. “A-And it scared me. He said he loves me and I- honestly? I don’t phckin’ get why.”

 

He should go. Before he heard the rejection, before he can watch Gavin run from him again. Before his entire world crumbled and fell apart and he couldn’t compose himself anymore. 

 

“Shit, okay,” Gavin swallows. He cradled the pot to his lap, arms loosely wrapping around it. It might have just been the RK’s entire existence there. 

 

He feels as if that would be an accurate statement. 

 

“I pussied out. I-I ran and hid like a little bitch, sure. But, I just, phck- love scares me? I’ve-I’ve never had it before.” Gavin’s gaze drops to the floor, his grip tightening. “They said they loved me but that shit wasn’t real. Wasn’t...love, I ‘spose.” 

 

Nines was baited. He’ll say it, hanging onto every word and hoping it led somewhere inside his fantasies. Somewhere happy with that fairy tale ending humans constantly tried to achieve. Somewhere better and whimsical.

 

“ ‘s different then with Nat. Yeah, not sure how- but I’ll, uh, figure that out.” The GV scoots more on the counter, slouching. “ ‘m a bit fuckin’ terrified- if I’m honest?”

 

Nines can’t seem to process, or do much with his functions. Because he’s scared too. Of what this is, what it isn’t, what it could be and what won’t be. It’s a lot. It is. And it threatens to eat him alive. 

 

“I’m kinda scared ‘cuz I think that,” And then the model sighs. Turns his entire head away and says so soft; “I might just love ’em too. And I don’t know what that means or how to handle it.”

 

And Nines freezes. 

 

He draws out a stuttering exhale as quiet as he can and stares at Gavin. He feels so utterly empty, void- until emotions rush in as unsuspecting as Nines feels. Relief so powerful he just might end up on the floor, an elation that might just take him through the roof, and a sickening happiness that he just might infect the world with. Because Gavin loves him too, and nothing could be sweeter than hearing those three simple words. Those easy words that hold the power of the universe and the ability to smite any one individual. 

 

The RK walks into the kitchen, pushed himself off the wall and takes careful and easy steps. He crosses the tiles on the floor and that’s when Gavin darts his head to watch him approach, looking as nervous as Nines had been feeling. 

 

The android gently pries the pot from the model, sets it far aside and places his hands on either side of the GV’s knees. They part easy for him and he slips himself between them. He takes Gavin’s face inside his hands next and swipes his thumbs under the model’s eyes, traces the scar across his nose and grins. He feels Gavin flinch under his fingertips, but he also feels how he melts and leans against his hands. His touch- the dreamy sigh that deflates his chest when he breathes evenly out. Nerves replaced, anxiety temporarily rerouted. 

 

“Someone told me to talk to plants,” Nines begins. This time; Gavin’s baited on his words. “And to tell them how I feel when I feel it.”

 

He lets his forehead rest across his model’s. Lets Gavin’s hands drop to his shoulders and he   
watches grey-green shimmer with something intense. Nines is proud to be its cause this time and thinks it’s a good look, much better than the one before it.

 

“And I must confess that I’m in love with an android.” 

 

Gavin chuckles, fingertips toying with the end strands of the RK’s hair. 

 

“That so?” The model murmurs, pressing a chaste kiss to the android’s lips. 

 

“Plants don’t talk.” Nines quips, taking Gavin’s bottom lip between his teeth and starts backing up- just to watch Gavin follow him a pace away. The GV scowls, cups his neck properly, and tugs him back. 

 

“I love you, too.” 

 

And when Nines thinks things couldn’t be better, Gavin kisses him. Slow and sweet, passionate, pushing himself so flush against Nines that he has to catch them before they fall. The weight is suddenly all on him and he doesn’t mind it. Catching the model and hiking him up, guiding his legs to catch his hips and sighing when they snake tight around them. Gavin’s licking inside his mouth, an insistent growl lighting his voice box up and Nines responds ten fold. Fingertips carrying a bruising intensity, throwing them both over the sofa after a moment’s walk and climbing on top of Gavin. With hands yanking at hair and demanding for the removal of his garments. With hips rolling against his and teeth nipping and mouthing around his throat, swallowed pants and muffled groans.

 

He never knew three words could make everything worth it. But he has all night to hear it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A lovely little resolve; and look!! the identity of one of the kidnappers!!!!   
> How...fun ;)
> 
> I was going to write a smut scene for this, but last second decided against it, mainly because of future events that haven't happen yet- but do have a significant buildup!  
> Hopefully last chapter's cliffhanger didn't kill you!!
> 
> Future ones just might, however ;)))


	19. We all fall down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _**[Chase Lucas And Unknown Suspect; Run Tests? ]** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _ **WARNING!!**_  
>  android body horror and mentions of murder!

They’re sleeping, or some form of it- Nines supposed- when he got the call. 

 

_**[ New Crime Report; Issued #313 248 317-87 RK900.**_  
_**-Sub; HMC200-US. ]**_

 

It’s a murder scene he must investigate. Tina sends the building file and informs him of what they know so far, he requests that they wait for him to arrive at the scene before continuing. He doesn’t want to leave the balcony that he has safely retreated to with Gavin curled and tucked in to his side. Gavin likes watching the city below, likes catching up on media and trends he’d otherwise be oblivious to, and Nines likes the silence. Likes the similar interests, and together they have been musing about human activities and random strangers on the street for hours. The company is the best part, with hands intertwined and bodies close. He isn’t yet ready to give it up, to pretend to be someone he is no longer and be away from the only person who’s seen past his eyes. Seen past the machinery and difficulty expressing. The people at the bullpen, however, only go an inch deep. 

 

“I’m afraid I’ve been called to a scene.” Nines says with sorrow, rubbing the abused knuckles with his thumb and noting the tiny scratching within the covered chassis. “It is linked quite heavily to your case.”

 

“Oh.” Is all Gavin says, suddenly reserved. Nines frowns. 

 

“I _will_ solve your case and catch those criminals. You have my word.” 

 

“What if..,”And Nines sees the sudden anxieties fester. Like a blister in heat, it boils and bubbles, filling and churning. “-what if you… _didn’t?_ Solve the case?”

 

Nines’ feels his face twist, puzzled. “I am close to closing this, believe me, you won’t ever be in any danger again. I have facial recognition of one of the men who captured you. And human criminal error is extremely high in cases such as these.”

 

“I’m just talkin’ out loud here,” Gavin shifts. Away from him, and Nines is bewildered as to what about the things he said caused such a reaction. The sudden amber LED giving him enough of a heads up to know he fucked up somewhere. “If my case went cold, I wouldn’t….uh, hold it against you?”

 

“What’re you saying Gavin?” Nines sees the mounting stress, feels the soft fidgeting at his sides and when he reaches out to coax the model back into ease- Gavin abruptly stands. He stares up at him as if transfixed on something astounding. What is it that’s causing this reaction? It was far from normal.

 

The GV doesn’t meet his gaze, looks just south of his eyes, and pulls at his wrist. Yanking him up and leading them through the house while rambling, “Nothing. Sorry, forget it. You should get ready for work or whatever, look presentable ’n other shit.”

 

Nines lets himself be led, his LED shining a gentle yellow. “If you wish to discuss something, I can prolong my arrival. It would not be an issue.”

 

“No, hell no. Look? It’s fine, it’s nothing.” The model murmurs, grabbing the CyberLife jacket he really should replace with something different, and slings it onto the android’s shoulders. Gavin even starts carding his hands expertly through his raven hair, styling it, correcting it, licking his palm and pushing flyaways back. “ ‘M just saying that- I love you, okay? For _you._ As you are. Not for, well, you know. Not for some case or whatever.”

 

He wishes to push the issue, branch across the confusing topic, but decides against it. The next part of Gavin’s statement has Nines’ reeling a small bit, because it’s uttered so soft, and spoken with too much disbelief. He does not like it one bit. 

 

“And, you uh- you love me, for me too, right?” 

 

Nines has to still the shaky hands straightening his shirt, wraps them up inside his own. He leans in close, catches the way the model tilts his chin up for a kiss but the RK stops just shy of meeting his lips. “I love everything about you, entirely so. And if you’re worried about me returning the sentiment, I will etch it across every inch of your skin later tonight until the sun rises." 

 

Gavin absolutely flushes, snatches his hands away and crosses his arms. There’s a pout on his face as he looks down and averts his eyes, mumbling. “Goddamn it- thats so fuckin’ cheesy.”

 

“Perhaps so,” Nines smiles. He doesn’t want to leave Gavin, especially after that. They felt fragile. Now more than ever.

 

As if a single thing could break this spell, tear them apart. And Nines was nervous. He’s never had to deal so heavily with anything before, had no experiences to draw from. This? This was something he was walking blindly, and while it was what he wanted, he had to keep it now. And he isn’t sure if having it then losing it is no harsher punishment than to never have had it at all. He wants Gavin by his side, wants to make sure Gavin’s okay. It’s a stupid idea, really. It’s very much so illogical and rings many alarms inside his protocols. But he wants this- wants everything to be fine and okay. Wants to replace the hesitation and the stuttering glimpses and half truths. So he approaches Gavin again and curls his arms around the model. He wants to do what’s right, for the right person. For the only person that mattered. They couldn’t return to the peace from the balcony, but perhaps, he could recreate the ambiance again. 

 

“Would you like to accompany me?”

 

“What?” Gavin gapes. 

 

“You are still apart of this case. I could allow you inside the scene with me, if you wish to not remain here all day by yourself. But if I am asking for too much then you do not have to go.” 

 

The GV stares at him for a moment, glances off to the side. Nines sees him looking at the plant, sees the way he debates with himself and the android is silent as he waits for Gavin to work through his thought process. He was about to take his offer back when the quiet stretched on for what felt like too long, but before he could utter a word, the model finally spoke up. 

 

“I’ll go.”

 

Nines offers his hand to the apprehensive model, trying to give a comforting smile but falling a bit short. He was hoping he’d be a bit better a self-expression by now. “I’ll be right beside you the entire way.”

 

Gavin gave him a pinched smile, one that didn’t reach his eyes but took the RK’s hand. As he walks his GV out of the house, worry settles deep into his system.

______________________________________

 

There’s multiple patrol cars, a large detainment vehicle, lots of officers and a few curious onlookers trying to butt into the crime scene. It’s a bit of a rainy day, a small drizzle with only partial wind, and the night falling onto them all. The streetlights even make the building appear ominous, a strange sort of thrill that screams for fear even in the smallest of people. 

 

Gavin is behind him, his maroon hood pulled over his head as he walks close to the RK. Officers pay them a curious look but nothing more, especially not after a murderous glare from Nines. He won’t allow another Perkins incident to happen, not ever again, and he’ll make sure everyone is aware of that with irate stares and a scrutinizing gaze. As they’re walking up the steps to the building, a chill creeps into Nines’ wires and a deep trepidation. He pauses and turns to Officer Collins patiently waiting for him to arrive, his weary eyes flicker over Gavin with a raised brow but as he’s met with the RK’s unimpressed stare- he gets right to business. 

 

“Good to see you, Nines.” The human calls in good nature; a soft curious titter to his tone. His eyes look over Gavin in his curiosity before returning to icy blues. “Make it here okay?”

 

“My arrival was of the common commute.” The android fills him in, already spying the nervous fidget and tempered glare Gavin’s giving Ben Collins. “What do you have for me, anything not mentioned inside the initial report?”

 

“We found something inside.” Ben side-eyes Gavin then. Nines squares his shoulders and looks at the human down the bridge of his nose and steps closer. “It’s an android but-...”

 

“But?” Nines chides and feels his patience waver. The nerve. And then not having the professionalism to carry forth a sentence? Childish. A complete time waster- how did humans get anything done with so much useless action? He’s quite lucky to be an android. 

 

“They...they _did_ somethin’ to ‘em. It’s,” Ben drags a hand down his face and sighs. It carried a weight to it, as if it’s tons of pounds of iron or steel and it makes that sinking feeling Nines has claw deeper into his core frame. “ -it’s not right. Not...humane. I’d tread carefully in there.”

 

The RK nods, looks over towards Gavin and straightens out his back. “Thank you Officer Collins, the GV200 is with me. We will be proceeding with the investigation- please, see to it we are not disturbed.”

 

He nods and gestures for the two to go inside, once the door shuts, Nines feels Gavin tugging on his sleeve and walking close by. With a curious sweep around the place the RK elects that it’s safe enough and curls an arm around the model’s waist. The apprehension is astounding, the tightly wound muscles of the GV’s back, he feels as stiff as a board. And Nines knows that if it weren’t for his presence, Gavin would be hyperventilating his systems and stressing himself out to destruction. He pushes memories of metal crunching and thirium leaking from a split head wound, he discards the helpless and near lifeless look on Gavin’s face. 

 

“I know this place.” Is all Gavin whispers as he specifically avoids looking around. 

 

It’s an empty building; dirty, messy, and stained. The coldness inside is enough to get even Nines’ processors alerting him to the chill. The floors are brown and black, but once he scans it, it’s covered in invisible blue. All over. Everywhere. Even on the walls- handprints and sprays reaching high on the paint and some even on the ceiling. There’s pieces of metal and scraps of android’s laying around everywhere. Yellow markers covering the entirety of the scene. The sinking horror of the place sets in and while Nines would like to say he is unaffected, the many interfaces he’s had with Gavin makes a certain.... _hesitation_ settle inside his programs. Strange, especially since Nines is perfectly equipped to handle situations such as this. But he decides not to dwell. Instead he walks further into the building and surveys the scene, looking for something- anything to tie him to Chase Lucas.

 

“Are you okay to proceed?” He asks when he noticed Gavin staring at the wall. There’s a handprint on there, many actually. And as the model wandered over Nines witnessed him pressing his palm flat against it and holding his shoulders tight. Drawn in and apprehensive before a look of guilt passed by over his face, and Gavin looks like he will crumple right there. 

 

The RK stalks over and frowns, pressing his finger pads softly over the forgotten smudges and takes his digits to his mouth to sample. His analysis suite lights up to deliver the following chemical makeup. 

 

_**[WR400; #429 671 942**_  
_**-Registered Name: Natalie. ]**_

 

The hurt that panged through him was enough to shake his investigation. Carefully, Nines took Gavin’s wrist and held it inside his own hand and gently rubbed the metallic plates beneath his slender palms. He watched as Gavin stared sadly at the print before hanging his head and shaking it lowly, before Nines could say much of anything, Gavin brought his hand up to his lips and briefly kissed each unmarked knuckle of porcelain skin. Sadness never tasted so bitter then in this moment.

 

“Let’s go.” His green eyes looked clouded and stormy as he stared at the ground. “This isn’t it. There’s a corridor around the corner and even a cellar, this is only the top level.”

 

“Was this where you were held?” 

 

“Yes.” And Gavin walks away without elaborating. 

 

Nines would go and comfort him further but it seems as if the GV doesn’t want it, so he refrains and follows along. The hallways seem worse then the open space, blatant scratches, claw marks, and holes inside of the wall. The floorboards are dented and also scratched up, Nines recognizes many things; dragging, bindings digging into grooves, the evidence of countless falls. The thirium is coating every inch of the floor, going about halfway up the wall before it spatters to the ceiling. But this time as they walk more, the cold begins to set in. A heaviness to it that makes Nines stutter in his steps. The temperature is below freezing, but thankfully, his upgrades and updates don’t seem to have a problem with carrying on. Other models? They were in trouble with the risk of prolonged exposure. 

 

“You do not have to be here, Gavin, as I understand that this place is--”

 

_“Don’t,”_ The model cuts him off. Nines feels his face scrunch up at the tone- dead, lifeless, yet angry. Harsh and stern. He hasn’t heard Gavin use that voice in a long time, especially not to him anymore. Memories dance across his processor as he thinks back to the observation room, the cell, and all the times they talked throughout the station. He wonders what’s going through Gavin’s head. 

 

“My apologies.” He would interface, but the model seems closed off entirely. Offering it, his programs inform him, would be detrimental to his cause. So Nines lets Gavin lead them elsewhere. 

 

There’s rattling, chains and thumps. Gavin does not flinch, doesn’t even show any interest, so Nines doesn’t either. He doesn’t ask any questions, sensing it is the wrong time. He can store them away for later and attempt at a conversation when they are stationed in a better place. 

 

Gavin rounds a corner, just as he had said earlier, and opened a dead bolted door. Or rather, it would’ve been. The lock and padding had all been broken, hastily thrown to the side as someone clearly ran- or made the attempt, he doesn’t have enough data to clear either theory. Upon closer inspection, there’s a substance on the ground, it showing up white in appearance. 

 

_**[ Human Blood ]** _

 

His programs whirl to life as he dips down into a squat to press his fingers flatly against the evidence. Bringing it to his lips, Nines analyzes his newest sample and promptly ignores the bleach component trying to hide it’s biological make up.

 

_**[Chase Lucas And Unknown Suspect; Run Tests? ]** _

 

He smiles as he hits the ‘Yes’ option on his protocols. 

 

_**[ Identity Match; Dwayne Tarazano. ]**_  
_**-46y/o.**_  
_**-Wife, three offspring.**_  
_**-has immediate family.**_  
_**-Employed. . . | Retail Stock**_  
_**-Currently; . . | Missing.**_  
_**Address; 248 Babylon Drive**_

 

Nines perks up at the new information and goes to speak- only to find that Gavin has moved on without him. The RK is lost as to why he’s suddenly so despondent, he decides to label it as the trauma and all of the despicable happenings that have occurred here. It should be reason enough to make anyone suddenly change moods, so Nines lets it go and does not hold any grudges to it. It would be unfair of him, and as Gavin would say, it’d make him an asshole. But, he does feel slightly timid when the GV has wandered off- the dangers of this place isn’t entirely mapped out, per say, and he’d hate for Gavin to get hurt. Especially, in a place like this. And he’s sworn to never let such a thing happen again.

 

“Gavin?” He calls out lightly, the rattling from before quieting down after it gave a particularly loud clank. He is met with no answer, was it the grief? Was it Natalie? Nines hasn’t had the chance to experience that type of loss, and he isn’t in the mood to start now. 

 

“Gavin.” 

 

The silence is threatening. 

 

He moves to round the corner as Gavin had done before he stopped, finds the stairs that lead into the cellar. Instances and images pop fresh into his mind; the staircase and Gavin’s dismantled hand, the small flashes of robots dying on these steps, the cold that slips into the RK’s legs as he descends into the chilly hell waiting for him. He hopes he doesn’t find anything bad, but hoping is a useless action that humans perform. And that is something he wishes he wouldn’t condone. 

 

His dress shoes make minimal noise as he takes the steps slowly, his programs and protocols already scanning the level before anything has the chance to surprise him. He spies an unidentifiable figure, a heap of something, before relief tickles his wires as he spots the shape of his model beside it. When he approaches, his relief turns to terror and hostility at what he sees. Officer Collins had been right- it was downright inhumane what Chase and Dwayne had done to this poor android, it was enraging even. 

 

There was an android, a JB300 model clutching at the metal chains and splints that kept him pinned to the corner he was in. Only, the first pair of arms were stuck above his head. The second was in an uncomfortable position behind his back, stretched too far and wide to be anywhere near comforting. The third crossed over his chest with hands holding more than ten fingers, his eyes were pleading and reminiscent as they stared up at Gavin, bottom lip quivering uncontrollably as he whispered to Nines’ model. The RK can see how horribly welded all the arms were to his back, how some were mangled and torn, other’s dented beyond repair and crushed, even a few having it’s circuitry and wiring hanging out of ports and panels. It looked painful, it made something hurt inside himself just staring, and he knew his LED must be flashing loud reds across the dark cellar. When the JB’s eyes moved and landed on Nines, it seemed to be stuck between freaking out and scampering away or remaining stock still in the hopes of not being attacked. 

 

“Dear RA9,” Nines softly breathed. 

 

“He’s cool,” He heard Gavin say. There was a gentle and soft trill to his voice, one that Nines only heard when he spoke about Natalie. A calm famiality to it’s tone and silky smooth draw, his hand reached out and clasped tightly to the other android’s arm. “ ‘s with me, helped me outta this joint.”

 

“ Di-Did yo-jouy, telll’m Ga-Gv’n, tell mh, about the- it’s- “ The JB glitched out, it’s hand trembling as it’s grip tightened around Gavin’s. “ -mutt-ourd-rrr, theh mdur-”

 

Gavin shushed the other android, grimacing as he drew his wrist away from it’s grasp and rubbed on the plates. Something about the way he stared off seemed cumbersome, distant, but also livid. Insanely dark with hints of something else that Nines couldn’t quite place. Whatever they were talking about, it had been dire. Deadly, perhaps, the danger seeming prominent in a place such as this with such abusive circumstances. Either way, Nines didn’t like the look painting Gavin’s face in silent horror while his LED spun a wild red. 

 

He also hadn’t seen that in a long, long time. 

 

Whatever the JB saw, it must have been the answer to his question because an understanding passed before it’s contorted face. Stepping closer, Nines saw that it had a scar much similar to the GV’s, except this one hadn’t had the chance to heal over. It’s facial plate was open, chassis permanently split down the side of it’s forehead and down it’s cheek. One eye was colored completely black, the other a terrified brown and as Nines peered closer, he noticed it’s skin was flickering in and out of existence. Patches and blotches of white showing up only for it to disappear the next second, just to repeat those steps all over again. It was clear the damage to this android wasn’t only external. He pitied the poor model. 

 

“Did you exp-xxeri-nce ittt- Vin? Dd jo-you-u se-c-i?” It’s voice cracked, robotic and static in it’s draw, echoing off the blood-soaked walls. Nines felt himself stiffen. 

 

“Yeah, Yeah I did.” Gavin sighed then, bringing a small tiny smile to his lips. It seemed haunted. “Whole different place out there- you would’ve loved it.”

 

“Ay-b-mhm-aybe so.” It hummed, then the colored skin fell away entirely. All the way up to it’s shoulder and the RK witnessed endless welding marks, scratches, scraps and burns. The blue light pulsed softly as the two survivors interfaced, the android’s power system must be going offline or just incredibly faulty. Gavin’s had looked the same before the maintenance. “Shhh-ww-show? Sho- ‘eee?”

 

Gavin wrapped both hands securely around the JB, and nodded. Nines could only imagine what data they were transferring and while he wanted to butt in and add questions of his own- he refrained. It didn’t feel like his place, he didn’t feel as if he had the right. So, he let it be. The interfaced lasted a few minutes, finally when it came to its end, the JB seemed happy. The happiest Nines has seen him and is willing to bet the happiest that damned android has been in a long while. 

 

“Live, for the rest-esstt- ov- us. Li’v, fo- me.” It guided Gavin’s hands to it’s chest, set it right over it’s mangled thirium pump and gave the warmest smile a person could have. “For her.”

 

Nines couldn’t see Gavin’s face anymore, it being obscured by the hood he still had pulled up over his head. He felt something akin to adrenaline coat his systems as Gavin’s fingers curled around the regulator, the soft clicks of it unlocking made Nines coil. His eyes widened and his jaw lowered, but no sound left his mouth. The component was turned from its casing, pulling as slowly and tenderly as possible, making the android heave a blissful sigh. The GV got up, began to undo the chains around the many arms as a countdown inside the RK’s UI began to go off. Less than a minute it would take, only a few more mere moments and it would reach zero.

 

When it’s arms fell limply to its sides, a few hitting the soiled ground, it’s smile grew even more. Gavin squatted back in front of it. 

 

It’s still bare hand reached out and cupped his model’s cheek, it looked to be worship to Nines. “Get-ttet- ut-out. Gavin. B-ee-rre-- Free.”

 

The RK knows he shouldn’t allow this; it’s tampering with evidence, murder on a degree, demeanor of a witness, witness intimidation, felonies after felonies. He should stop Gavin, he should intervene. But as the JB’s final moments played; the 5 turning to a 4 then a 3, to a 2, and finally the 1. He couldn’t bring himself to interrupt. The mutilated android looked so carefree all of a sudden, like the burden he had been carrying was taken right off of his shoulders, he looked to be living his best possible life. Or, technically, ending it in the best possible way. 

 

It’s body slumped forward and Gavin carefully cradled the droid, setting him down with all the care in the world. Nines heard him breath heavy, saw the way his own hands began to quake and he stared at the rising stress level he had. 

 

“We need to transport him somewhere.” The GV growled, his voice low and thick with emotion.

 

“I will inform officer Collins.” Nines uttered dumbly, walking over and taking Gavin by the shoulders. Coaxing him to move away from the unmoving body. “We should head home, there is nothing more for us here.” 

 

“Don’t _phckin’--”_ That glitch. The RK frowns, understanding the new depth of the dark topic. “--say that shit. Not about Jason!”

 

“Gavin,” he counters. Bringing his hand to rest on the model’s hips as he presses close, leaving enough distance between them so Gavin does not feel overwhelmed. “We will take care of him. Please, let’s go home.”

 

This time, as they walk outside of the building. Nines does not hesitate to shoulder past people, destroy video footage, and intimidate people out of his way. They climb into the autonomous vehicle, set it on its course, and get lost in the night. 

 

It’s with sorrow that he adds another name to the victim’s list.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> angst, and lots of it, as promised!
> 
> look closely children ;0


	20. What is it exactly?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nines’ vision goes red. 
> 
>  
> 
>  
> 
> __  
> **[ERROR].**  
> 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter references the last one quite heavily!!  
> So if you skipped it, for personal reasons, read with caution!

Hands pull roughly on his hair, making his head tilt and expose his neck. Teeth scrap and bite down harshly on the junction where it meets his shoulder, followed by heavy sucking right after. Nines believes he is going to be covered in bruises similar by the end of the night. Which, would be fine to him, only he’s worried. 

 

Gavin had climbed right into his lap as soon as they pulled away from the station, dropped his hand to the RK’s belt and set to work on getting him aroused. 

 

He panted hotly when those lips chased and danced around on his skin, a firm palming through his slacks being enough with the current stimulation to activate his sexual protocols and services. Nines can feel a second hand slipping under his skirt, mapping out more skin and brushing over his own nipples. He huffs at that and makes a choking sound when they’re caught up in a pinch. He wouldn’t have figured they’d be so sensitive to the touch, and Gavin makes sure to exploit that. 

 

Twists, tugs, and pinches litter across his frame. It all makes him squirm under such heavy attention. But he isn’t complaining, not by much anyway. He does wish Gavin would say something, would give him anything to know that he’s alright. But Nines understands speaking, revealing the emotional distress, was never Gavin’s favorite thing. 

 

So he lets the GV paw at his chest, arches into the hand currently clawing down his sides. He lets Gavin mark him up in whatever way he wished, whatever way helped. Hips grind down, replacing the palming that once was, and he hears a little titter in the way Gavin breathed. He knows what that means, reaches his own hand around to cup the model’s ass and feels the evidence of their to-be-copling. 

 

Nines catches Gavin’s lips in a searing kiss; rushed, sloppy, and dominate. He plays with the other’s bottom lip, nips at it hard enough to bleed, soothes the sting with a pass of his tongue. They’re getting more aggressive as the moments flicker into minutes. The scene mainly being affected and controlled by the GV, and Nines tells himself that he’s okay with it. That this is fine, despite the worry and panic, it must be fine. 

 

His fingers hook into the waistband of Gavin’s jeans then, pulls the elastic back and lets it snap to his hips with a loud clap. He feels the model jolt against him before letting out his own pleased hum, plunging his tongue inside the RK’s and blowing his analysis suite to oblivion. His UI highlights many things he has already memorized about the model on his lap but he doesn’t mind the reminder. Too caught up in the demanding set of lips latching onto his own to care or look too hard. 

 

The car halts gently, a little voice informing them that they have made it. Gavin makes no move to dismount so Nines takes it upon himself to grab the GV by his ass and lift them both from the seats. 

 

A gasp flies out of Gavin’s throat yet dies on the tip of his tongue with how insistent Nines becomes to eat the sounds. He walks them to his apartment, links with the security programs and unlocks the door. It swings open wide and he gracefully enters. Holding the hungry GV against him as he ruts on the android’s hips. At this angle, Gavin is a few inches taller then the RK- which Nines knows he’s proud of. His head tilts up, captured inside of Gavin’s rough hands and he’s leaning himself back, adding momentum to the android’s steps to faster take them to the bedroom. 

 

Gavin handles the bedroom door, then grabs the lapels of the RK’s pristine jacket and slams him down. Immediately, his hands tears open the button up and yank the offending clothes right off of Nines’ body. He licks up a long stripe in the center of the android’s chest, tonguing around the pump so vital to his being that Nines moans quietly, gripping on tight to the model’s hair and forcing his head up. He seeks out Gavin’s lips again, and this kiss is no less urgent. 

 

Nines flips them over. One of the GV’s hands flounder a bit, grabbing his shoulder to try and re-roll them back to what they were before. Yet, Nines catches it’s wrist and slams it down onto the mattress. He takes Gavin’s belt from his jeans and snatches the other one as well, tying them together and leaving them above the model’s head. As he kisses a trail down the olive complexion, keeping the hips that try to rock at bay, he undoes the other’s zipper and button with his teeth. Growls when Gavin tries to push his hips up again, and nips none-too-gently at the exposed thighs once he lowers the denim. 

 

Gavin whimpers, but still insists on friction to his erection. 

 

Nines grants it to him, after raining down bite marks and nibbles to every inch of faux flesh that he can, delighting in the white-blue mark littering his body, and rising back up to his lips. 

 

Legs part easily enough for him and it almost makes him sad that Gavin would rather get lost in some momentary bliss then face the issues he’s so scared of. He wants for the model to be ready to stand on his own two feet, confident and fierce as he normally is, but will settle for this regardless. Because Gavin is trying, coping, in his own way and no matter what he thinks- he has to respect that. Though, he can always try to improve on these bad habits. 

 

“Tell me to stop,” He pleads. A quiet and tender reminder that Gavin is in control, despite who’s on top and who’s receiving or giving, Gavin has all the say. And Nines will love him regardless if this ends or finishes. 

 

“No.” Is what’s growled out to him, tied wrists flinging themselves around his neck and trapping him between Gavin’s body. There’s an intensity to his voice; an edge that cuts Nines deeply.

 

It’s angry, sad, and tired. Something that hits him squarely inside of his pump and makes him frown, the tragedy- Nines gets an image of that other android inside of his head. How softly Gavin spoke to him, how he held the dying man, how comforting his touch was to a starved and beaten soul. And Nines understands, just a bit. And he’s vowing to be the perfect distractor, he’s promising to make Gavin forget. 

 

Maybe just for right now, maybe for only a moment. 

 

But one moment of ignorance is much better than an eternity of torment. 

 

So Nines grabs the back of the GV’s legs, hoists them over his shoulders and lifts up Gavin’s hips. One of his fingers slides down the model’s ass and feels the river of lubricant smeared all over his entrance and thighs. It makes Nines huff, a little thrilling fact about Gavin that he has momentarily forgotten about- what a sweet reminder. 

 

He pushes his finger inside, absorbing that tight heat and getting lost in the idea of shamelessly rutting inside something so warm and wet. The RK won’t lie, not here, but his model makes him get hot and bothered in record time. His need being voiced in his arousal, burning inside of him in a steadily growing desire, an ache for his lover. He curls his finger inside and is rewarded with a sweet cry- a little coated in frustration, to which Gavin breathes just a moment after. 

 

“Don’t be gentle, Nines. Fuck me, I can take it.” Hips rock, a little insistent in their own way, down onto his hand. He jolts his wrist, sliding deeper inside Gavin’s body and drinking up the little sob of ecstasy that spills past his lips . 

“Are you sure? We can alway- “

 

“Yes I’m fuckin’ sure! Don’t be a bitch and just fuck me!” 

 

Nines stares at him; really looks at the model underneath him. Gavin holds his gaze, defiant and angry for a second before it’s melting like ice in an instant. They become watery, distant looking, and bittersweet before they drop down to focus on a new target. His lips, his chest, his shoulders, where his hands hold on tight to the other model. They concentrate on anything and everything besides Nines’ eyes; his gaze. And it’s making something inside his frame hurt, just a bit, at seeing him so down. But the android carries on. 

 

He takes his finger out and grabs Gavin’s hips, angling them up before he slides himself in. Sheathing himself all the way inside and sighing at the wetness that envelopes him entirely, Gavin breathes harsher and bites at his lips to keep a sound back. Nines doesn’t waste anymore time and pulls himself out, dragging every inch of his dick out of the model before he pushes himself back inside, making a small rhythm out of it. 

 

Making a sort of grumbling, airy squeak, the GV sutters out a quick, _“Ha-Harder_ Nines.”

 

Nines looks him over, nodding once, and adjusts his grip. He’ll give Gavin what he wants, he’ll do what he can, he doesn’t have to absolutely love it but it was something he could do. So, the RK slides himself back out once more and rams his hips in. Gavin moans, a loud sort of cry that’s broken by another hard hammering to his hips, building up a steady pounding with each sound of skin slapping skin. 

 

His fingers dig into the other’s hips, making the skin momentarily disappear to reveal the marked white underneath. Nines thinks it’s pretty, it’s own definition of beautiful, and he simply will never tire of seeing it. No matter the way; whether they’re having sex, snuggling, or bathing together. He doesn’t think the sight will ever bother him, and he hopes Gavin knows that. 

 

“I love you,” Nines whispers. Folds Gavin’s legs and leans over him, biting his ear and nibbling along his jaw. The model keens a needy sound, shuddering as the RK angles himself to the spot where he knows Gavin’ll see stars. “You feel wonderful around me, such a beautiful android- my beautiful android.”

He cries, rutting his hips squarely down onto Nines’ own in a stuttering pace. His chest heaves with all the air he’s trying to take in and if the android focused hard enough, he could hear the muffled sounds of fans whirling to compensate. 

 

“God- Nines, fuck, just like that--!” Gorgeous and sinful moans spilling past swollen lips, Nines smacks the GV’s flank and prides himself on the way that Gavin arches. 

 

He doesn’t last much longer, pitching his mewls and whimpers louder until a specific pornographic moan lurches right out of his sternum and his walls clench down around Nines. He pants, stilling as he empties himself inside his lover, catching the satisfied look as milky white paints across olive skin. He lets Gavin’s legs slide off his shoulders, catches his bound wrists and unties them, soothing the worked limbs in a soft massage as they both recalibrate their systems. It was close enough to the afterglow that humans reached during their intercourse, it was only slightly different. 

 

“Better?” Nines questions after a few long minutes of silence passes. Gavin looks at him, expression morphing for a solid second before it twists into one of contentment. Only- it looked blocky, pressed, and foreign. 

 

He doesn’t need to be an RK unit to tell that he is lying. 

 

“Should I fetch the plant?” 

 

“What?” Gavin sits up, leaning his back on the headboard of the bed and curling the blanket over his lap. 

 

Nines doesn’t look at him, knowing his stare might trigger anger, and slides his boxers back onto his stark appearance. “Would you rather discuss whatever happened today with the plant? Or with me? We can have as much sex as you’d like, but you mustn’t bottle things up.”

 

“Nines, you don’t even know what you’re asking me to say here.” The GV growls, crossing his arms and making a show of looking away. 

 

Nines sighs, because he is right. He doesn’t know and he cannot begin to imagine, the stricken look of the JB300 still haunting his mind as he sits on the edge of the bed. The android reaches out and catches Gavin’s ankle, trails his fingers lightly up and down his leg, mapping out the scar where he had been dismantled. Before the other can protest much or move his limb away, Nines plants a kiss along the raised ridges. 

 

“Enlighten me, Gav.” He notes how the GV goes stock still. He presses his nose to the mark, licking a gentle strip along it and noticing the sudden spike in the model’s breathing. “There is nothing you can say that I cannot handle.”

 

“It’s not just about you anymore.” Gavin deflects, straightening out his leg and lightly kicking Nines in the shoulder. “I-I mean, fuck yeah, you’re a big part of it. But..it goes _deeper_ than that. I gotta- I just- uh, I can’t. Nines. You can ask me anything else, but not this.”

 

“Alright then, may I ask what the JB was discussing with you?”

 

“Na--No! Nines I- look, it’s not that _simple,_ there’s something you can’t kn--”

 

“You’re hiding something.”

 

“--I’m not! Let’s drop it, it’s just a dumb investigation anyway, like who the hell even--”

 

“It is not some dumb investigation!” Nines counters, leaning onto his hands and watching as something flickers inside Gavin’s eyes. Troubled, stormy greens sinking into a sea of darker colors. “You, surely you, of all people, know that.”

 

“They’re missing! Off the radar! So let’s leave it be!” Nines goes to speak but Gavin throws the blanket off of himself. Crawls over and pushes Nines back down onto the bed, his brows are drawn together and he doesn’t look happy. 

 

For a moment, the RK doesn’t speak. 

 

Gavin looks like he’s nervous, afraid- Nines does not understand why. His programming screams at him to figure it out. That there’s an underlying meaning to all of this. He presses on. 

 

“How do you know they are missing? I never mentioned it.”

 

Gavin deadpans at him, sitting back and rolling his shoulders. “I was stuck with those assholes for years. You weren’t. You think I would leave them? Let them go- after, after _everything?_ After what they did?”

 

“That is precisely the reason why you should assist me in this investigation and tell me about the JB300. Please, just--”

 

“No!”

 

“Gavin! Why is this such an issue--”

 

“I’m a phckin’ security model, you goddamn idiot!” Fist pounds at his chest, missing his exposed pump. Gavin’s staring, biting harshly at his own lip. Nines fears that it’ll bust and when blue leaks down his chin, he gently swipes at it. This situation does not need another catalyst. 

 

“What does that mean Gavin?”

 

Gavin takes his hand then, making it cup his own cheek as if Nines wouldn’t have done it himself. His hands tremble but his grip is firm, as strong as Nines has ever felt it be before. His own brows knit in silent confusion. 

 

“It means, I- it-it means--”

 

He sucks in a breath, the RK takes the time while Gavin is gathering himself to pass his thumb over the other’s bleeding lip. 

 

“I...I get the _option_ of harming humans.” 

His eyes shut, he looks pained. Nines sits up, careful to let the model have as much space as he needed while he clung helplessly onto his hands. It seemed like he was missing the RK’s touch even though it wasn’t gone, as if he expected it to just disappear by the next second. 

 

“They’re missing, and I know that b-because, I _killed them,_ Nines.”

 

Nines’ vision goes red. 

 

_**[ERROR].** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> welp,,,Gavin just spilled.  
> To CyberLife's most prestigious, productive, and trustworthy android
> 
> gosh golly gee i wonder what'll happen next


	21. Tell Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The officer led him to the door, and as he took his first few steps outside of the building he felt remorse for having to be silent.
> 
>  
> 
> But some things are just bigger than himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _ **Warning!!!!!**_  
>  This chapter contains some dark themes, such as; Murder, Android Body Horror, non-con, and some violence. 
> 
> Read with caution, loves.

“Pardon?”

 

“I murdered them.” Gavin says again, a lot clearer and a lot louder. 

 

Nines can only stare up at him, shocked. He was positive his LED was glowing a bright, murderous red as he processed the information. 

 

**_Murderer, killer,_** his programs whispered to him. ** _Arrest, obtain warrant, extract confession, turn over to proper authorities. Detain. Detain. Detain_**

 

Yet, he couldn’t. Because this was Gavin, the one he loved, the one he was suppose to protect. It had to be an act of defense- no, he knew it was. After experiencing all of those flashbacks, seeing all those little instances, watching how changed the GV was, Nines knew it was justified. But would the law see it that way? He knew that the country was still new to androids and their rights, knew not everything was entirely equal. But they had to fight that, maybe this could be a step in the right direction. If he just contacted Markus, perhaps everything would be fine. If Markus got around the law once before, then surely, he could do it again. He has a powerful position, he has connections and resources. They would be fine, they had to be.

 

Nines could build a new case, with evidence to support Gavin’s innocence or work the jury in favor of his side. They could have Tina pose as a witness, even Connor maybe. But no one was on the inside- no one alive anyway. 

 

Or, some other androids escaped and can come forth to vouch on Gavin’s behalf. 

 

If he could see it- locate and identify some other model, then they’d be okay. Things would work out. 

 

“Show me.” The RK pleads, gripping the sheets so tightly that the seams begin to give out. 

 

Gavin gives him a sympathetic look, “If I do then you’re in this now. Completely. There’s no backing out.”

 

Nines looks him squarely in the eyes, determined and beyond understanding of that fact. It was already too late now, even if he wanted to back out he wouldn’t be able to with all of the information he has now. 

 

He extends his hand, white chassis shining in the dim lighting. “Show me.”

 

Gavin’s hands clenched into a balled fist, unfurled before doing it a few more times. He was debating with himself until finally, his eyes gleamed over and he shoved his hands into the RK’s own. 

 

This time when the interface starts, Nines is a bit repulsed to see. 

 

______________________________________

 

_He feels the slap against his skin, hears it echo and bounce off the walls, the heavy grunting and the disgruntled pants._

_Gavin goes down easy when a hand paws at his back, forcing his cheek to the ground as Chase grabs both of his arms and pins them. Not that it mattered very much anyway, because Gavin hadn’t moved all week. He wouldn’t move even now._

_He laid there, hips raised and took every inch and every thrust to his ass, he accepted the dirty words and the degrading titles. He let his face be smeared into the messy floor, allowed for them to try again and again to get him to react. To make a sound of some kind. The humans tried torture but when he didn’t scream they got tired, they couldn’t make him quiver in fear either which just pissed them off, isolation didn’t help. Gavin loved every second of that loneliness, drank up the silence like it was thirium._

_“Dirty whore,” Chase groaned. Angling his hips here and there, pulling on and tugging at the model’s hair while he pounded himself into the GV’s backside._

_He blinked, stared distantly at the concrete wall and focused on the temperature._

_He zeroed in on how the chilly air prickled his skin, how the floor absorbed it all and dished it right back out into his programs. Gavin concentrated on how the tile felt under his chassis; the small little grooves and dips, the lines he traced with his eyes all along the empty space. If he thought hard enough, or cleared his mind entirely, he didn’t feel it. If he told himself that everything was fine then sometimes he just managed to trick himself into believing it._

_But as he heard the footsteps of Dwayne overhead, he remember Natalie._

_‘You’re okay.’ She would say and take his hand._

_**You’re okay.** _

_With a shaky breath and a loud exhale, a calloused hand smacked across his hips as something warm spread between his legs. Gavin didn’t utter a single noise. “Alright, fleshlight, hope you’re gearin’ up for round two. I’ll have you sayin’ my name nice ‘n loud.”_

_Gavin didn’t even flinch as his body was angled into a new position. He just didn’t care. And as his head was swiveled around, jaw gripped tight as fingers pushed past his lips- he just looked at the world upside down._

_He didn’t see Natalie watching him and in a way he was relieved, she shouldn’t be forced to watch this. And she wouldn’t ever again._

_Because she was dead._

_**‘You’re okay.’** _

_Gavin whispered it into his head, breathed it out in prayer as he was rutted against._

_**‘You’re okay.’** _

_He said it again as tears accumulated inside his eyes; only building._

_**‘You’re okay.’** _

_Gavin felt angry. Disgusting. And gross._

_**You’re not okay.** _

_Gavin’s jaw clenched, his rage boiling red hot through his artificial veins._

_ **You’re not okay.** _

_As Chase emptied himself, again, the model heaved in a big gulp of the brisk air and let it fester inside his chest. He hoped it would stop the burning anger but it only supplied it. Those hands might as well have left blistering prints all across his skin with how mutilated Gavin felt in the moment; red painted his sights._

_They took his freedom, they took his blissful ignorance to the world as a machine. They took his joy, the light from his very brief sentience. They took Natalie from him- and all the people that mattered to her, androids that came before her. They took his dignity and pride. They took his only hope._

_They took everything._

_And Gavin was so tired of it all. He was so tired of being on the butt end of the joke, tired of being used and thrown around, so exhausted from being dismantled and patched together. They took everything from him, again and again and again and again._

_They were monsters: Dwayne forcing arms and fingers onto other androids, making them watch as their own brothers and sister were slaughtered and used like toys, degrading them, creating tasks designed for failure._

_They didn’t deserve everything they got, everything they got away with._

_They didn’t deserve life- the very one they stole continuously from him and every other model. They hurt people, they hurt Natalie, they killed people. Good people- androids. No one deserved this, no one deserved to go through this. He wouldn’t let them take another soul, capture another android who didn’t belong in chains, to be tormented. He’d kill them before that happened again, he’d put a mark on them for every mark littering his own body and that of anothers’. He’d get them back, get some revenge._

_An eye for an eye, after all._

_Chase was the bigger of the two, and after being spent from two orgasm, Gavin heavily doubted his coordination and strength. The human’s breath was falling labored and hard across his back, relishing in the newest afterglow of his post sex high. He saw Dwayne coming down to mutilate Jason from where he laid on the floor. He wouldn’t let the JB’s torture carry on- if there was one thing he could do in his sorry fucking life, it was that. If he died trying, at least he bought the other a moment’s bliss._

_Turning his head, Gavin saw the discarded mallet they used to break another Traci’s legs. He knew it well, having seen it be used countless times and even becoming a victim to it only twice before. He knew it hurt. He knew it shattered whatever it touched effortlessly. He counted on it’s consistency, it’s breakability. His wrist moved, twitching without it’s proper calibrations and he set his jaw tight. Faux adrenaline raced throughout his systems, his mind numbing as flashbacks of his time spent groveling replayed over and over inside of his broken sensors. His old, original programs- his security protocols- lighting up as he identified the threat before him. It sized up the best execution route to satisfy his craving, his need—Gavin was going to fight for survival._

_“Are you shaking?” Chase cackled, smacking the model’s lower back as he softly grinded again. “God, you’re disgusting.”_

_Gavin promptly ignored him. His fingers ghosted over the handle, the briefest of touch sending a fire through his fake veins._

_Chase draped himself across Gavin’s back, biting at the shell of his ear and blowing repulsive breath hot and warm over his skin. “Good. As you fuckin’ should be. You should be thanking me for—“_

_Shut up, shut up, shut up._

_He grabbed the mallet, clutching it as if his life might as well have been in jeopardy right then. Gavin felt like he could explode; fear, anger, disgust, excitement, a sick sense of twisted pride._

_“You like that? You like the feelin’- ,” Chase began but he hadn’t been given the chance to finish the thought._

_Gavin surged forward, grabbing the human and throwing him over his shoulder. He scrambled above him, straddling his legs and raising the weapon above his head. He let out a guttural scream as he brought it down- the warmth of red spattering across his skin, on the floor, all across the walls. It mixed with old and new thirium, the shouts and gasps of pain making something break even further inside of the GV._

_He raised the mallet back up and delivered another blow._

_And another._

_And another._

_And one after that, and one more after the last one._

_Chains were thrown hastily around his arm and neck, the footsteps and sounds of a scuffle right behind him made him pause._

_Dwayne._

_Gavin voiced his rage, twisted and pulled and yanked until he was free and he threw the other human down onto the ground. The android rushed over, bent his arm until it snapped and forced his legs back unnaturally. The sounds of agony, the blubbering cries, the gurgling of blood as he took the mallet to Dwayne’s face and cracked his chest. It was satisfying, soothing. Gavin’s never heard anything sweeter, anything more thrilling. The mushy and broken sounds their bodies made was enough to get him pacified. His programs kept blaring at him; It was wrong to kill humans. He was going to be dismantled, disassembled- and a part of him almost didn’t mind._

_He stayed hunkered over the bodies, panting heavily and wiping away at the mixture of tears and blood on his face. He thought back, once more, to Natalie. She wouldn’t have wanted this, she actually believed in people, believed in goodness. But he had never been good, Gavin had never been hopeful or optimistic._

_The androids around him only stared, some afraid, others relieved and thrilled, and some an odd blend of the two. He looks up, begging for answers, for direction- yet everyone is just as clueless as him._

_How do they go on now? Where do they go from here?_

_Humans hated androids, saw them as slaves or toys. They knew that all too well, there was nothing put there for them, nowhere to fit in. Even if they did find somewhere, how could they assimilate into the world after experiencing the horrors of this cellar?_

_What would Natalie have done- what would she have said?_

_**‘You’re okay.’** _

_But he wasn’t, he was far from it. Gavin was not okay in the slightest of means._

_They all heard car doors slamming closed, boisterous laughter following soon after. Gavin looks at his surrounding androids, motions for them to get down and be quiet as he goes towards the stairs to check out the sudden disturbance. The voice he overhears from above sounds kind, familiar even, and he’s drawn to it like a moth to a flame. He hikes up the stairs and rushes towards one of the curtained windows, lightly pulls the fabric between his fingers and peaks._

_“Just because I’m gay that doesn’t mean you get to make fun of my driving!” A female voice called, shaking with unshed laughter._

_“You almost hit the curb!” Another voice shot back._

_“But I didn’t!”_

_The officers were starkly different from one another. One had pale skin while the other was colored, not too dark but far from lightskinned. The girl has long black hair, tied up into a lovely bun as she hip checked a tall man with courser and much shorter hair. Gavin stared longingly at their dynamic; gentle ribbing with affectionate gestures. He had something similar with Natalie. He remembers how she described this officer, this- human, claiming it was one of the good ones. Natalie crushed over this human woman, and Gavin saw why._

_This patrol normally checked the neighborhood, and after a minute or two of the officers being on duty, a few children had come out to play. He’s heard them playing before on lonely afternoons when he’s been left alone by the freshly made corpses after they’d beaten him unresponsive. He feels himself tremble, the joints in his knees shaky and suddenly dysfunctional. He wipes away tears from his cheeks, feels the blood smear even further across his scruff and he’s suddenly overcome with miles of guilt and a million buckets of shame. He hates himself. He hates what he’s done, he doesn’t wish to be deviant anymore._

_“GV200?” A tender voice calls to him from the windows, a broken TR400 with only his upper half still attached and functional. Voice glitchy and filled with static. When he doesn’t turn, it tries again. “Gavin?”_

_“...Yeah?” He answers just as hoarsely._

_“The human girl, the small one, she’ll come back to check. What’ll we do when no one can answer the door?”_

_Gavin hesitated. His eyes and LED must’ve shown his sudden spike in terror, helplessly he turned and looked around at the building. It was suppose to be their tombs. And yet, here they were._

_“Gavin?” The android pried. “What do we do?”_

_When he still didn’t answer, brows scrunching, the TR400 called louder. “What do we d- “_

_“Give me as phckin’ second! Okay!” Gavin yelled, breathing heavily as his stress steadily rose._

_The TR400 looked shocked, a sliver of fear inside of it’s iris as it backed away, adding more to Gavin’s guilt. He swallowed, an unnecessary action he hoped to be soothing, and grabbed his own hands. Rubbing over them and squeezing just how he remembered Natalie doing. He could do this, he could. For her if for no one else, not even for himself. For her._

_“Um, okay, let’s gather everybody who can patch themselves and others up.” He looked questioningly at the other on the floor and sighed when they nodded and crawled off to get to work._

_The night passed on just like that, bathed in heavy silence as they tinkered over one another, trying to undo all the damages the humans had done. It was a tedious job and not everyone could be saved, some didn’t even want to go on and shut themselves down. Gavin never felt so many things, never wanted to feel again, never asked for any of this._

________________________________________

_“That’s all we could salvage.” A PJ500 android informed to Gavin as they both looked at the shivering groups of androids huddled in the middle of the room._

_His green eyes bubbling with his unspoken thoughts. He felt tired._

_“Did we make it into the lock?” He asked, his voice set to his default factory setting to mask his readiness to scream._

_He wanted this to be over._

_“No, but Angel just woke up. He’s about to make an attempt.”_

_“He doesn’t have enough power or thirium left, he’ll shut down if he moves.”_

_“He knows.” PJ5- Julian, said. His remorse evident inside his whispering voice._

_Gavin doesn’t look at him, and just waves his hand. “We get in, we get anybody left, and then we leave.”_

_Julian nods, pats the GV on the back, and then he’s left alone._

_**‘You’re Okay.’** _

________________________________________

_Angel, using the only arm he has left, rips the dead bolt and all of it’s locks out of place. The metals clatter loudly onto the floor, scratches it- not that anybody cares. He takes a step back, sucking in his remaining dignity and charges the door. It opens under the sheer force he rams it with and then he’s slouching against the wall. Madeline, a newly named but old soul, sits by his side. She takes his hand, smiles sweetly and brushes his hair away from his mangled face._

_As he walks by, he sees her kiss his lips once, hand going inside her stomach plate as she disconnects her main tube. “Together,” She whispers before they both fall forever silent._

_He keeps moving despite it all, holding onto himself._

_**‘You’re okay.’** _

________________________________________

_“There’s no one else- “_

_“-they’re all dead! They took them all- “_

_“No one is in one piece, we can’t possibly- “_

_“-at the scenes? We have to go- “_

_“- you crazy!? There’s no way we could- “_

_“I can’t believe you! You selfish prick! You- “_

_“It’s survival! Your emotions will be the death of- “_

_Gavin ignored the bickering as he looked at the carnage. Hope never seemed so foreign and so lost._

_“- gonna die, you crazy bitch!”_

_“It’s our people! You’re turning your back on them!”_

_“There’s nothing we can do!”_

_“There’s always something to be done!”_

_Gavin watched as a few androids cleaned up the blood, him helping as much as he could while the bigger and more normal looking models disposed of the bodies he had utterly fucked up beyond comprehension. There was nothing they could do about the androids brutally botched inside the gated cellar, but few argued over leaving the bodies in this place. He, personally, didn’t care. He didn’t have a say in Natalie’s body- it being strung up on display somewhere for the police to find it, wherever that may be._

_Morning would come upon them soon, and with it, their probability of success to leave this place._

_His emotions stirred; as uncontrollable as the ocean’s waves and suddenly he found himself in the middle of a bad storm. Anger as hot as lava pooled at his feet and drowned him inside of its depth. Gavin was helpless to it’s push and pull, stumbling and falling inside despair and shame so strong he choked on it._

_“Everyone leaves!” He screamed, earning silence from those around him. “Everyone leaves here and no one comes back! Take what you can and who you can and fuckin’ get out.”_

_“What about the ones used for a message?”_

_Natalie. Androids like Natalie, is what they meant._

_“We can’t do anything for them now. If we try, we get caught, we die. We get involved, we die.” He supplied back._

_“There has to be something we can do!”_

_“We shut up.” He growled, narrowing his eyes at her. “Humans won’t take our word, they’d rather take our blood and watch us suffer. So no one says anything about this. We leave and we go, fuckin’ far away from here and we never say anything.”_

_“Okay,” They conceded. And one by one, each android around nodded._

_“We won’t say a word.”_

_“No one will ever know.”_

_“We’ll finally be free.”_

_“Yeah,” Gavin coughed. Getting back to his scrubbing. “We’ll get out.”_

________________________________________

_Everyone walks out the door, but Gavin stays._

_Everyone leaves to go find a place for themselves, to build and start a new life, to search for happiness beyond these torturous walls. But Gavin stays._

_He has a few hours before it’s all over, before he must face the music, before morning rises and the humans come to find him._

_Everyone will survive, and Gavin sits in a corner utterly alone._

________________________________________

_There’s a knock against the door and he trembles._

_It’s insistent and loud and it shakes the entire door frame, the pounding echoing off the walls. He’s terrified, he’s buried under layers of heavy guilt and despair. Gavin’s so enraged, so beaten down, so exhausted and tired. The knocking comes again._

_It persists for several minutes until the door creaks open, the lock having been unlatched and opened. Gavin spies a gun before he sees the hands belonging to it, then the face and finally the person as a whole._

_It’s the officer woman, from before. The nice one with soft eyes and a lovely smile, he remembers hearing her laugh, remembers how it warmed his chest and made him feel safe. The bitterness is agony as he stares into her worried eyes. He must seem like a wreck, hectic and ratty and forlorn. She cautiously approaches him, sees where his eyes are glued to and pockets her gun. Her hands are soft; he can see it from their distance. He knows she isn’t rough with hands like that._

_It might be because of how she stared, concerned and bewildered at him, it might be because he has no one left anymore, it might be because he’s given up. But he trusts her. He wouldn’t mind dying by her hands, wouldn’t mind it if she put a bullet between his eyes, wouldn’t care if she ended up harming him. He trusted her._

_The way her eyes, wide and brown and glimmering, stared into his own just made him break down._

_**‘You’re Okay.’** _

_“Hey, hey now, easy does it bud. You’re okay.” The officer called out softly, her voice soothing in every way. Wrapping around his battered soul and filling it with hope, with warmth, fighting off the cold that had its talons so deep inside him. “ I’m not gonna hurt ya, okay? I’m the good guy, I’m here to help”_

_She approached him slowly, hands raised in a peaceful and non threatening gesture, she squatted down to his level. Her hands extended- she looked like a true angel with what little light remaining flickered down on her. He could only find kindness inside of her eyes._

_“Come with me, I’ll get you out of here.” She whispered, “We’ll go where no one can hurt you.”_

_He knew better than to trust promises, they were just empty words. But as Gavin took her hand and was helped to his feet, he couldn’t help but to believe it. The officer led him to the door, and as he took his first few steps outside of the building he felt remorse for having to be silent._

_But some things are just bigger than himself._

______________________________________

 

Nines takes his hand away, moving as if stuck in time. He feels overwhelmed; emotionally, mentally, and somehow physically. He understands the silence, understands the need for urgency and discretion but it is still wrong.

 

Still illegal.

 

And it all just doesn’t sit very well with him. He can’t do what Gavin has done, he can’t sit idle and pretend as if nothing had ever happened. It wasn’t right, wasn’t what they do.

 

Gavin slides off of him, gathers his clothes and throws them on. He doesn’t look as dark but there is a noticeable lack of light in his eyes. 

 

“We need to talk.” A look of hurt flashes across Gavin’s face and this time-

 

Nines knows he cannot fix it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully this answered majority of your questions regarding Gavin’s mysterious past and why he never said a word!
> 
> Though,,,,we still have the issue of what will Nines do??
> 
> ;)


	22. Stop Yelling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It wasn’t his job to fix things- to fix _everything._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We have a few more bumpy chapters to go!! Not exactly out of the woods just yet!

“We need to talk.”

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Gavin, we need to discuss- “

 

“What is there to discuss!?”

 

“Don’t do this.” RK pleads, getting up from his spot on the bed. “Please don’t do this.”

 

_“You_ don’t start this!” Gavin fires back, a fierceness to his tone and gaze that makes Nines freeze from where he is on the bed- his desperation is evident. 

 

“Gavin, you murdered people, we _need_ to talk about this!”

 

“There’s nothing more to say!” He yells, “You saw it all! There’s nothing more to it! I killed somebody, the bodies were taken care of, and I got out. End of story.”

 

“That’s not- “

 

“No! _End of story!”_ The model roars and turns his back, swinging open the bedroom door so hard the hinges creak and whine. He stomps out with Nines hot on his heels, urgency blooming into annoyance. 

 

His systems scream against him, his mind yelling over it, and his heart battling for air to speak. He felt like he was being torn apart from the heavy decision he has to make- he doesn’t want to come to any conclusion, doesn’t want to make the wrong choice. But he can’t do nothing, that just isn’t an option anymore. 

 

“But Gavin- “

 

“No! I don’t want to hear it!” He goes to move but the RK catches him by his wrist, his hold is strong and firm, and Gavin tries to rip himself free of it only to fail. He winces once as the grip strengthens into something more, and Nines isn’t sorry about it. 

 

“Listen to me!” Nines shouts, backing the GV up until they’re at the wall. He puts his free hand to the side of Gavin’s head and incages him. “They’re going to find out eventually and the charges will be worse the longer we wait, if you come clean now then maybe we’ll have a chance.”

 

“No.” And Gavin’s glare is full of vitriol. To add more fuel to the fire, he adds as an afterthought. “You never found out.”

 

“I didn’t want to compromise us. There’s a difference.”

 

“Oh, I’m sure.” Gavin spits and squirms in his holding. 

 

“Stop fighting me, I’m only trying to help you!”

 

“No, you’re not!” His struggle increases and Nines strengthens his hold, he isn’t proud of the way Gavin’s skin melts away by force around their point of contact and he doesn’t savor the little creak of metal. But he keeps on, he has to. _He has to._

 

“I am! Connor will find out even if I didn’t tell him, the Lieutenant is never far behind him either! The whole department has eyes and ears on your case, this is not something we can argue about, your case _will_ be solved. One way, or another.”

 

The glare that he meets is defiant and stubborn, he sighs. 

 

“I could make a case for you, I could gather witnesses from your memories, store them as evidence. You wouldn’t have to even do anything but show up and testify.” Nines begins but is faintly surprised at the amount of power Gavin uses to push him away. 

 

Literally, Nines is forced back stumbling a few feet by the shrugging off the GV had done. Gavin, who stands straight and defensive, heated eyes putting a hole right between his eyes as he seethes where he stands. 

 

“You’re bringing _no one_ into this.” Gavin says it darkly, protective. Nines feels only a small stab of jealousy at the intensity. “And you’re not saying anything to anyone!”

 

“We could argue that your programming took control over you; reorganized your priorities, disabled safety functions. They messed with your wiring!” The RK is filling up with his own anger, why couldn’t Gavin just see reason? He could take care of everything, he could, if the model just let him. He could keep them safe, he was CyberLife’s best, he had to be able to do just that. He had to be perfect. He would be perfect. 

 

“They could turn it against me and say my programming is fuckin’ broken!” Gavin hollers right back, his hands flying as he gestured to himself. “The prejudice is goddamn insane, Nines. You know it! Don’t act like you don’t!”

 

“But we have a solid case to defend you!”

 

“The percentage of androids getting off in a human filled jury is fuckin’ low- we both know that!” He pointed at the TV plastered to the wall, it switched on as Gavin’s LED blinks yellow and then saturated to amber. “Jamie Danea, android, accused of domestic violence against her human husband. She lost.”

 

The TV showed the final bits of the trial, the android- a PM700 with a good record- sobbing as she was heavily chained up and escorted outside of the courtroom. Every human face looked on her in disgust, inferiority it screamed. Nines’ brows furrowed as he looked up the case details. 

 

“Her lawyer was biased, we will not have that problem.” The android defends. 

 

Gavin continued, changing the screen to show a different android. An LM100 model trembling in clear fear. “Delvin Max, android, accused of drug dealings and hoarding private information. He lost.”

 

Nines watched as the android in particular was shocked, systems frying as they condemned him. He downloaded the case files- this android was clearly innocent if the evidence showed anything. But a human’s testimony seemed to counteract everything otherwise proved innocent. An obvious liar. But the court ruled in favor and sentenced the model as guilty, the judge no less forgiving.

 

“Amelia Taylor, android, accused of petty theft and plotting a heist.” Gavin kept switching names and cases, a never ending stream of data and dates that Nines otherwise was oblivious to. “Chadwick Clark, Sarah Rose, Blake Whiteman, Echo Smith, Brandon OverBee, Rachael Marks, Emily Cox, Gracie McGee.”

 

When the model turned to look at him, the TV screen splitting into dozens and dozens of boxes all showing the exact moment the gavel came down and the judge spoke their final words- Nines saw each androids’ face fall while the jury of humans seemed pleased at the sudden horror etched across every one of their faces. He was disgusted and afraid, and so incredibly angry. 

 

“They all _lost.”_ Gavin growled, flicking off the object and standing with his arms crossed. “Every last one of them. They never even had a shot of winnin’ either.”

 

Nines frowns, running his hand through his disheveled hair as he tries again. “I can analyze their cases and take into account every variable to ensure that you will not- “

 

“Fuck- No! Goddamn it, no, alright!? Haven’t you been listening, metalhead?”

 

“Gavin, trust me.”

 

“I- I can’t Nines.” The GV turns away from him. He hunches his shoulders and crowds into himself as he delivers his next line that cuts right through Nines. “I can’t sit there and be looked at- _stared down_ by snotty no good asshats who think they’re better.”

 

His rage boils down at the wavering voice, and suddenly Nines feels a little stupid for keeping such a fight going. But the reason behind it was to grave to just give up.

 

“I can’t let them...they look at me as if I’m some fuckin’ dumb animal. Not, not again.” Gavin swallows, bites down on his lip. “I _won’t_ Nines.”

 

The RK is silent for a moment, wanting to step closer to console his GV but also being too hesitant to try in fear of making things worse. He knows they can’t be quiet, the consequences were too grand to risk. And against his better judgement, he utters a small and tiny, “But- “

 

“No!” Gavin explodes, all that sadness replaced with indescribable anger as he viciously snaps at the air around him. “No! Didn’t you fuckin’ tell me you fuckin’ loved me!?”

 

“I did.” Nines relents, feeling the hurt and rage build up inside again. “With all of my heart. And I do. I swear I do- “

 

“Then _drop it.”_ Gavin glowers and makes his way towards the guest bedroom, his bedroom. Nines follows a few steps away, glaring at the GV’s back as they do a fatal tango. “Me and Nat only ever wanted to be fuckin’ out, and now I’m out. Just-”

 

He whirls around, jamming his curled fist against the RK’s chest as he directs his gaze to the floor. 

 

“- let me move on, let me be out, Nines.” His voice carries softer, shakes with his own unburied emotions. “They’re gonna lock me away, kill me even. Let me...god fuck, just let me _live.”_

 

Nines knows he’s petty for this, knows that he’s wrong for saying it. But he’s desperate and filled with his own hurt. He wants to be plagued on Gavin’s mind as heavily as Natalie is- and if Gavin can risk it all for her and not him, it’s not his fault that he’s a little jealous and envious of that fact. His own vexation bubbles over and before he can stop himself, he’s yelling out. 

 

“Natalie _is_ dead, Gavin! She’s gone! Stop- just stop making this all about her and just _fucking_ think for yourself! For me, do this for us!” 

 

He regrets saying it the moment it left his mouth. 

 

He regrets saying it the second the hurt flashes across Gavin’s eyes. 

 

He wants to take it back more than anything. 

 

Gavin’s hurt expression morphs right back into defensive anger and he’s back to glaring at Nines, stepping far away from him and opening his bedroom door. 

 

_“Fuck. You.”_ And the door slams closed. 

 

The strength behind it shakes the frame, shakes the house a tiny bit. And Nines knows he’s made a mistake but his own agony and disappointment fester into his own resentment and indignation and he’s walking away without attempting to apologize. 

 

He tried to help. There was nothing to apologize for. 

 

It wasn’t his job to fix things- to fix _everything._

 

He grabs his jacket and retches the front door open, slams it closed just as hard and locks it. He’s flying down the stairs as the rain starts up and begins walking right into traffic, daring any cars to try and hit him as he makes his way. 

 

He walks right into the station, takes a moment to find his predecessor and wastes no further time in approaching him. 

 

“Good evening, Nines.” Connor greets him, worried expression already twisting his otherwise calm face. “What is it?”

 

“I need to tell you something about Gavin.”

 

Nines walks towards the observation room with Connor in tow, he lets the other android enter the room first, walks in after and locks the door behind him. The RK unit powers down the cameras and anything that could possibly be later checked and scrubbed for intel. Connor waits patiently, standing there poised and perfect and waiting. When Nines deems it safe the other RK interjects. 

 

“I take it this is important?”

 

“Extremely.” 

 

“Well then, what is it that you wish to discuss?” Connor’s head tilts, as always. 

 

“I have secret information about the prime suspects.”

 

“Do tell.”

 

“They were murdered.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> As always, share your thoughts, theories, or opinions!!! I’d love to hear them loves!!


	23. The Shambles I Made

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Something is destroying you from the inside out,” Connor says instead.

“I’m sorry?” Connor echos dumbly. 

 

“They’re missing, the reason we cannot find them- even a trace of them- is because they were murdered.” Nines repeats and sits down in one of the chairs facing the one sided mirror. 

 

He remembers looking through it and spying Gavin, being fascinated by his mysteries. Now, he wishes he never found a spark of intrigue. Wishes he just stuck to his job and did what he was suppose to instead of getting mixed up into all of this. 

 

“And how, exactly, do you know this?” Connor asks, taking a seat right beside his successor. His brows are drawn together and he looks pensive. 

 

“Gavin informed me.” Nines relents, extending his hand towards the other RK. He feels pity for the mess he’s about to pull Connor into, but he cannot undergo all of this alone. 

 

Connor, as if sensing the darkness looming over them both, gently takes Nines’ wrist by his cuff and denies the interface. “There is something more to this that you aren’t telling me.”

 

“I will show you.” Nines says through clenched teeth, opening his hand and extending his fingers. His hand has never felt heavier with the weight of another’s sins on it. “Please Connor just-...take my hand.”

 

“Something is destroying you from the inside out,” Connor says instead. Worry and concern coat his features and Nines feels like he’d either explode or crumple from the stare. “Tell me what’s going on, Nines. Tell me what you’re hiding.”

 

He says nothing, lightly shakes his hand to draw attention to it. Connor regards it for a moment, his face pinched. His eyes search for any hint into Nines’ icy blues before checking the offered palm once more. With hesitance, Connor takes his brother’s hand. And within a second Nines transfers the data; the fight, the flashbacks, the private moments, anything and everything he can. He’s a dam flooding through every processor Connor has and it takes a frightening amount of analytic data to go through it all. 

 

“The suspects were murdered,” Connor repeats looking just as burdened as Nines feels. Understanding the depths of the situation and all of its complications. “And Gavin did it.”

 

“I don’t know what to do.” Nines whispers, breaking away the uncaring facade and falling to pieces right in front of the only person he knows he can trust within the moment. Tina can’t know, not yet, he wasn’t sure where to go from here and how she’d respond. 

 

“It is quite the dilemma.” Connor comforts, squeezing the hand he still holds. 

 

“He will not listen to reason.” 

 

“Or, perhaps, you will not listen reason.” 

 

Nines shoots up, quickly dislodging his hand from the other’s consoling to stare pointedly at him. _“What?”_

 

“Do you remember those two Tracis I let go, before the revolution, when I was still a slave to CyberLife?” 

 

“What of them?” Nines hisses, not very accepting of being told he’s wrong. 

 

“Had they not acted and murdered their client, they would’ve died. And saying goodbye to a loved one is no easy feet.” And before Nines can argue, Connor’s stare turns cold as he blurts out a quick. “You should know that better than most after what happened in there.”

 

And he freezes. 

 

The banging of a skull against metal is too prominent, the echoes bouncing off the surrounding walls and drowning him in a sensation of panic. He hates it. Nines despises the memory, wants more than anything for it to have never happened. It’s a horrid memory that he still blames himself for, the overwhelming fight or flight picking up within his programs as he clearly pictures the blood staining the table and the wall. The RK vividly remembers his terror, his rush to get inside the interrogation room, how he had to forcefully shut Gavin down momentarily to prevent a bloodbath from happening- no matter how much he thought Perkins had deserved it. 

 

And Connor just casually brought it up. As if it meant nothing when he knew it meant absolutely everything. 

 

So Nines stays quiet. Clenched his fists as his gaze flickers to something else around the room. 

 

“The Tracis, Ripple and Echo, would’ve been killed. If one lost the other, I feared they’d deactivate.” The other android continued and stood up from his chair. “And so would have Gavin. And many more after him had nothing been done, I’m sure.”

 

“Are you saying murder is condonable?” 

 

Nines is thoroughly surprised when he feels a light hand to his shoulder, he stares into big brown eyes, they look to be pleading. “I am saying that we do what we have to do, and whether that is right or wrong is not up to a stranger to decide. The circumstances are dire, different, and we were never apart of it in the first place.”

 

“But it’s the law.” Nines defends weakly. 

 

“It’s only the law when the law is alerted.” 

 

“Connor,” he says thickly. Swatting the hand away and hardening his gaze, yet Connor doesn’t sway under it. _“We’re_ the law.”

 

“And we’re people, too, Nines.” 

 

“What do you mean?” 

 

“Your first priority doesn’t have to be your job.” His predecessor sighs, sounding exasperated. “You don’t have to approach every obstacle you face as an android, you’re allowed to consider your emotions. You’re allowed to be more than your coding.”

 

“This isn’t about my failure to assimilate!” Nines began, infuriated and defensive. “This is about you excusing an illegal action!”

 

“Why’re you getting worked up?” Connor started calmly, he sounded as if he knew something Nines did not. And it irked him further. 

 

“You’re being awfully grating, eights.”

 

“No one is saying that what Gavin did isn’t illegal, and no one but you is claiming it as wrong.”

 

“Because it isn’t _right._ ”

 

“Are you saying that because you’re trying to follow along guidelines already engraved in you, or because it is what you truly believe?”

 

“Why’re you so transfixed on being philosophical, Connor?” The RK growled with narrowed eyes, hating that this was getting so far under his skin. 

 

“Because you’re lying to yourself. Nines I experienced what you felt- believe it or not, your heart is not in this.” Connor fixes his tie before flattening out wrinkles that never existed, as an afterthought, he adds softly. “If you carry through with this, I won’t help you and you will regret it.”

 

Nines closed his eyes and held his head in his hands, it felt dreadfully full and quite heavy. He knew what he should do, what was expected of him, he even knows what he’d rather do, what he prefers. But then they mix into an unhealthy concatenation and leave him scrambling for a piece of coherent thought. He was lost. And making a decision for himself never seemed like a grander challenge. He didn’t flinch as Connor squatted down and carefully nudged his knees. 

 

In moments like this, he wished he had Amanda to instruct him. He wished he took orders. It’d be so much easier- much simpler. 

 

“Nines?” Connor prompts, his tone tender and full of unspoken curiosity.

 

He thought back to Gavin; his smile, his kisses, his laughter, his scars, his memories and ambitions. Gavin made him feel good, great even. Normal. 

 

Wanted and loved. 

 

Nines enjoyed coming home to him, praised every crude remark the model made at something mundane or vaguely annoying. He found that he had invested in many things since the GV’s arrival, and had grown increasingly over the course of these few months. He enjoyed doing things he hadn’t even given a seconds’ notice to: Life just seemed fuller. 

 

He considers Gavin’s memories and emotions- the fear and terror. The boiling rage and deep anguish. There was just so much loss, so much wrong and he certainly wasn’t helping. 

 

Nines hates making such a weighted choice, feels as if the world is breathing down his neck and he reviews his endless hours with Gavin. How right it feels to hold him and pepper him in bites and nips, how ravishing it is to devour him and fuck him open, how jubilant the RK feels whenever he makes Gavin smile and not to mention the warm fluttering feeling he receives when Gavin stares at him as if he is everything. 

 

And perhaps he is. He’s all Gavin’s got now, and as he considers this notion, Nines’ shame and guilt do nothing but swallow him whole. 

 

“Nines?” Connor calls again. 

 

“He has nothing.” Nines murmurs, voice barely above the quietness of the room. 

 

“He has you.” 

 

“No,” The RK bites out. He takes a stand and briskly walks out of Connor’s space. “Not now he doesn’t.”

 

“Nines!” His predecessor calls, quickly jumping to his feet and staring worriedly at the exit. 

 

The other RK puts his hand on the door handle, pausing as he turns to regard his younger brother. “He doesn’t have me now, and he needs me.”

 

The other android falls silent. 

 

Gritting his teeth, Nines breathes in deeply. “I have made a mistake. I must be returning now.”

 

Connor only stares, and while his gaze isn’t sharp, there’s something about it that sets Nines off. He can not decipher that look.

 

“Nobody needs to know.”

_____________________________________

 

Nines rushes home, his conscience heavy as he sits stiffly inside the autonomous car. He’s dreading what he’ll walk into once he arrive at his home yet he is also far too anxious to stay away a minute longer. His programs are blaring and it takes everything within him to shut them off, they plague his sight with every flicker of his eyes and make him feel as if he cannot carry on under such immense stress. 

 

He only wants to hold Gavin and drift off into stasis. 

 

But he’s made a muck of things, and he isn’t too sure there’s an easy solution to it all. Whatever he did will bring heavy consequences and Nines isn’t sure what sacrifices he will have to endure because of it. 

 

He could lose Gavin, lose his job, be deactivated himself. Though the action was now against the law to simply shut down an android without a warrant and legal action brought straight from the judge, Nines still worried. If what Gavin said was to be true, and the RK knew it was, if all was to be found out and discussed in court he doubts they’d win after hiding such a giant secret. And surely with how unsteady humanity is with androids- having Nines, the most upgraded and proficient android on the market, meant for war and infiltration, designed to capture and kill- help another get away with murder would certainly shake if not destroy their very fragile trust within androids. 

 

No matter how he thought about any side; it didn’t end well. And by the time the car had finished its route and waited for his exit, Nines sucked in a breath as he exited and bounced his knee. 

 

He’s seen Tina and Gavin do it, even watched Connor fiddle with his fingers and that damned coin. Maybe he really should invest in one. 

 

But as he walks up the steps and opens the door, calling out tentatively for the model, he is met with silence. 

 

The plant he’d originally gifted to the GV laid smashed; glass pieces scattered around the kitchen floor, soil spraying across tiles, and the poor little plant peaking through the wreckage to peer up at him as if in a far-away-cry for help. His heart lurched and hurts uncontrollably and Nines wishes it didn’t. His pump feels misplaced. 

 

“Gavin?” He tries again and does not receive an answer, only met with more crushing silence. 

 

The leaves on the plant look crumpled as if held in a tight grip and Nines doesn’t need his construction program to tell him what happened here. 

 

The RK leaves the kitchen, knocks on the spare bedroom door and waits for an answer. Not even a yell pierces the nauseating quiet around him, he’s panicking underneath it all. 

 

In a sudden haste Nines retched the door open and finds not a single soul inside the room. The drawers haven’t been touched, clothes had not been moved, and everything laid in the same order as if Gavin had never moved anything. And he never had a reason to, having been glued to Nines’ side the moment they met each other. Waiting at the door for the RK to return and saddling close at every available opportunity, they went to bed together, rose together, got dressed and bathed together. Everything was in a succession of one dance to another, always having the other close, always being a nanosecond away and always in reach. 

 

Nines had only left for an hour and thirty minutes. 

 

“Gavin?” He calls again, his chest filling up with a type of torture he doesn’t wish to ever become familiar with. 

 

And the air only laughs at him back in mockery at his sorrow. 

 

Nines throws his jacket to the floor and balls a fist into his hair. He cannot do this- he couldn’t believe that he caused this- this- this _mess._

 

The idiocy- the stupidity- What was he thinking!? He risked it for nothing- ruined everything as he knew he would, Nines fucked up. Really fucked up. 

 

He sinks to the floor. 

 

Gavin is gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hopefully all of this angst isn’t killing you!!! But I’m my defense,,,I did warn you all, but don’t worry!! 
> 
> Some fluff is on its way, in a few chapters ;3


	24. Never Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I am sorry.”

His shoes echo across the pavement, the rain from before only picking up more and more as he walks down the street. He was mad- pissed off more than he was before. This rage was different from when he had been locked inside that building, vastly different from the murderous intent but just as intense at the same time. The model walks down dimmed alleyways and hangs behind underneath the protection of an old bridge no one uses anymore. It’s charred husk and rusty beams much too unstable for any body weight and if it ended up collapsing, well, so be it. Gavin wouldn’t mind. 

 

He’d _told._

 

He did the one thing he promised not to do, the one thing that could bring them all in- could end them all. And he’d be at fault. If he managed to live through the trial, the sentence, then he wasn’t sure he wanted to live through the guilt of bringing everyone into the limelight. Though he didn’t keep up with them and didn’t keep track, he hoped they were all doing better. Much better then he currently was. 

 

Gavin trusted Nines, more than he could say. And that ended blowing right up in his face. 

 

He convinced himself that it didn’t hurt, that he wasn’t scared, that it didn’t even matter. Gavin kept repeating it inside his head that he didn’t need anyone. That he was fine on his own. That the terror and fear gripping his heart was just a system error that’d pass. 

 

Because now that he tasted life, tasted the freedom he longed for, experienced the happiness that life could bring, he didn’t want to let it go. Gavin couldn’t even fathom the idea of being locked up again, chained and at the mercy of another. He’d much rather be deactivated then suffer that torment again. So he made the wise decision to take a walk. To cool down and think logically. 

 

Nines was a threat, and as much as the looming danger ate at him, Gavin knew he couldn’t do anything about it. He couldn’t hurt Nines, couldn’t kill him like he did with Chase and Dewayne. He could only bare whatever fate Nines decided to set upon him. 

 

He’s been walking for hours. Listening to the rain hitting the pavement and savoring his last bits of freedom before the hammer cracked him down. Gavin pondered going out by his own hands but thought better of it, if there was a chance -however small- to be able to continue on and make something of himself then by all means he’d fight for it. 

 

And that’s why he went out walking. Gavin has to think over what he wanted to say, how he wanted to convince or beg Nines into silence. The RK’s systems were too new for Gavin’s tastes, he couldn’t just input a virus to delete his memory or work around his security firewalls to coherence him into submission. And it just felt wrong. Entirely so. It made him feel icky and horrible just thinking about it so he immediately scrapped the idea. He could never do that to Nines. Not when the android had-.... well, it didn’t matter much now. 

 

Gavin almost expected officers to run him down, guns raised and firing. Half expected a chopper or something as equally dramatic to shine down a light on him and demand he lay flat onto the ground. But none of it came, and he figured the sirens and blue lights were waiting for him back at Nines’ place. 

 

But he promised he wouldn’t run. He promised Nines that he’d remain there and believed he was wanted with the way the RK stared at him, with such a soft and warm look that made the GV helpless to do nothing but agree. The smile, wide and lax and beautiful, was enough to encourage him to always come back. To always try for him. So that’s what Gavin would do. 

 

He’d try to talk to Nines, he’d try to make this less shitty. Or he’d get cuffed trying. Die trying maybe. 

 

Gavin was rounding the corner, nearing the block when thunder cracked across the sky and lit the street up. It was bright and blue, it reminded him of the android’s eyes. How nice they were in every light, how they shined and glimmered when Nines thought Gavin wasn’t paying attention- watching the RK watch him. And Nines was sweet, kinder then any soul he’s met so far, and Gavin owed him this if nothing else. There was a small commotion, evening foot traffic along with the regular nine-to-five travel, and he felt like he belonged in this small chaos. The hectic trampling and the blind direction in which everyone walked. It was everyone inside their own minds, inside their own business, just going from one place to the next and not caring for anyone else. 

 

Gavin nearly thought he was seeing things when a tall white and black jacket came into view. But he watched the sway of a stray hair fall onto a forehead, watched the circling red LED and the repressed expression schooled into indifference. But he knew Nines, knew all the tales about him. And right now he could see the desperation and panic clear as day. 

 

His eyes were flying everywhere, no doubt looking for him as Gavin mindlessly walked with the crowd. He felt a certain fear crawl inside him and stayed rooted, ugly and large as he internally spiraled into a fit of anxiety. 

 

As he neared, Gavin just brushed his hair a different way, threw his hood over his head and pickpocketed the human beside him to get a pair of sunglasses. The frames were large and thick, tented like the midnight sky and plastic. When the model put them on he was sure his scar was mostly covered. He had even changed hoodies- going from his maroon and black jacket to a dull grey cottoned coat that hung from his figure. Especially as he changed the color of his skin along with the shade of his hair. He was half sure he would be hard to discern in the large crowd, and as Nines neared him, they walked right past each other. 

 

There were things Gavin wanted to say. Things he needed to say. The desire to reach out and hug Nines tight. 

 

But he was too afraid. And not at all ready to face the music and say goodbye to a world he now understood as beautiful.

 

So when Nines started shouldering people and bumping them out of his way as his stress spiked higher and higher the longer he lost Gavin’s little trail, he told himself that all was fine and kept walking. 

 

He wasn’t stupid- as much as Nines might think. He scrubbed his figure from the traffic cameras and street recorders so the RK wouldn’t find him so quick. 

 

Nines walked further and further away, as did Gavin. And he never turned around to look back. 

 

Briefly, he wondered if the panic was a failed arrest or Nines genuinely caring.

 

Thinking back to their fight, he chose number one.

______________________________________

 

Tina was the only person he answered to. 

 

Nines called him, Connor as well- which he ignored- and even Chris Miller. Gavin liked Chris too, he was kind and gentle and protective but not overbearing. In fact, he liked him being Tina’s partner because he never worried. Plus, the man had kids, which meant that he was trustworthy. A father understood certain things and Chris exerted all the fine qualities of a loving parent. Sometimes Gavin found himself craving some sort of approval from Chris even if they never really spoke much- it was how the human made him feel that got to him in the end. He made Gavin feel...safe. Secure. He was a good human and Gavin wasn’t scared of him. To his sweet eyes and gentle mannerisms, Chris was a gentle soul. He could see it plain as day. 

 

“Why is Nines freaking out over you not being at home?” Tina asked, and Gavin almost lost it at her voice. Light and honeyed and soothing. 

 

The model slid down the brick wall of the alley, sighed and curled in on himself. “Because I didn’t wanna be there.”

 

“Why? Did you two fight?” Worried, she was worried. Fucking above bless her soul, Gavin fucking loved her. 

 

“Yeah,” He grunted. Flicking the legs of the glasses he’d stolen earlier out and in before tapping on the lens. “It was...pretty bad.”

 

“What was it about?”

 

When he didn’t answer, she didn’t push. He’s never been more thankful to her- well that’s a lie. When she found him inside that building and took pity on his ass, that was his most grateful. This, however, a close second. Tina never crossed any lines, or overstepped his boundaries and it made him truly believe that not all humans were bastards. Only a handful.

 

“Need me to pick you up? We can dance and play with my birds- I taught my parrot how to say fuck. It’s pretty damn hilarious!” She giggled over the line, making a small smile appear over his frown. She always did that; made him happy when shit was at its lowest point. 

 

“Nah, ‘m gonna go back and talk to him I’m just- “

 

“Waiting out the minutes?”

 

“Yeah, that.” He couldn’t help but sneer. Human lingo, stupid and damn strange. 

 

“Well, I’m sure whatever it was about, Nines’ll come around. He likes you like a fuckin’ lot, Gav. Seriously, it’s like fairytale level romcom shit. You’ll be okay.”

 

“Thanks, T.” 

 

“No problem. Now!” And Gavin’s grinning before she’s even said much of anything. “Did you _see_ that episode of the Bachelor where he jumped the goddamn fence?”

 

“Nope.” He cackled and got himself comfortable against the wall, “But tell me about it anyways.”

 

“Holy shit, where do I start!” 

______________________________________

 

Gavin still finds himself hesitating, a day after within the dead of the night, dreading returning to the place he felt was a home. He shouldn’t have gotten so attached, it always did fuck him over in the end. But he’d made the mistake, dug his grave and now all he could do was lie in it. He’s walking mindlessly through parks and weaving in between cars and oncoming traffic as he crosses streets, eventually he gets the courage to walk the familiar path back to the RK’s home.

 

He’s nervous as he strolls up to the place, stares at the steps and the windows that are closed to him, and wonders why there’s no cops here. He wants to chicken out and run away from his problems, but he’s done that before and this isn’t something he really wants to lose so easily. Gavin also wants to cower and hide away with Tina- but he isn’t dragging her into this. She shouldn’t go to prison for his fuck ups. 

 

So, the model walks up the steps and places his hand on the pad. He doesn’t look at his chassis, hates the sight of it, and when the door opens with a silent _whoosh_ he’s fighting the instinct to run. Gavin takes a deep breath before stepping inside and as soon as he does he carefully looks around.

 

But no one is there. 

 

The place isn’t as he left it whenever he had thrown a small tantrum, it’s cleaned up, organized again. And the GV isn’t that surprised because Nines would clean it. Of course he would. And he has to wait for the android to get back, refuses to run and plops himself down on the couch. He remembers the more intimate moments of their relationship here, the nights where they laid silent together, all the times he’s gone into stasis with Nines holding him close. God, he’s going to miss that. Miss Nines. It might not be so bad if he gets behind bars and the RK visits him from time to time. 

 

Gavin just curls up and waits, staring at the door and trying not to shake. 

______________________________________

 

He waits for hours (almost a day) before anything happens. It’s far too late into the night, much later then he’s used to waiting for Nines to come home. But he waits. Because Nines would’ve waited for him once upon a time and he’s so smitten with the RK that he doesn’t mind doing the same. So he sits for hours and hours, only moves to tend to the windows and see what he could spy down below. The cars move slowly through some traffic, their lights and noise making the screaming inside his head dull down and eventually quiet all together. It’s rather nice.

 

He couldn’t tell you how many cars he ended up counting, the different shades of colors, the amount of birds flying in and out and around, the clouds that passed by, the people who engage in conversation and who raced by. It’s all a jumbled number inside his HUD as he carries on waiting. And eventually, he grew tired of watching the sun move east and spying how the sky hanged colors. 

 

The GV went towards his room and pulled out the little cat plush Tina had gotten for him all those months ago; it was still as soft as ever, fuzzy and smooth beneath his sensors. His grin came back full scale and he briefly wondered what the officer was doing at the moment. Maybe she knew something about Nines’ whereabouts?

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(12:37am)_   
_Hey, T?_

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(12:44am)_   
_Wassup thot?_

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(12:44am)_   
_You didn’t._

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(12:45am)_   
_I did. Deal with it._

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(12:45am)_   
_Where’s the iron giant?_

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(12:47am)_   
_Working his fuckin’ hair off, that’s what._

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(12:56am)_   
_Send him home for me?_

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(1:00am)_   
_On it._

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(1:00am)_   
_Thx_

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(1:00am)_   
_Don’t mention it bb_

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(1:01am)_   
_Never call me that._

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(1:03am)_   
_What- only Nines can?_

 

_** KittenBoi ** _  
_(1:03am)_   
_Shut up._

 

_** CardiT<3 ** _  
_(1:04am)_   
_Fuck You too then, damn._

 

 _ **KittenBoi**_  
_(1:04am)_  
❤️

 

 _ **CardiT <3**_  
_(1:07am)_  
Thaaaaaank you

 

Gavin resigned to brushing the fur of his plush. “Natalie, what’re we gonna do?”

 

The little cat didn’t answer him, instead kept smiling up unbothered by the complete shit happening all around him. Despite him being scared shitless he was bound to this house and he’d do everything he could to curb his anxieties until the android got home and then he really couldn’t run. Because Nines was superior in every way and now that he thinks about it, it’s quite a scary thought. Nines could hunt him down if he really set his mind on it, could make sure Gavin never attempt another escape, could get him the worst possible punishment there was out there. 

 

But he _wouldn’t,_ is what his brain kept feeding to him. 

 

He sighed, hugging the small thing to his chest and picturing it as something different. Could him and Nines be coparents for an actual feline? Was Nines even interested in that, did he like pets? He’s never brought up anything other then plants yet admitted to liking taking care of something. Was Nines even still in love with him anymore after he fucking left him like that, letting him get crushed by the weight of his murder? Gavin wouldn’t forgive someone if they bitched out on him with something so serious. Nines has every right to hate him now. Nines has every right to want him dead or jailed. Nines has every right to ignore him.

 

“Hey, Nat?” He calls softly as he peers down at the cat cradled inside his arms. “Think you could give me some courage?”

 

The toy kept smiling, cherry and bright. Gavin envied it, held it’s small plush paw inside his much large, tougher hand and sighed. 

 

“I know, you’re right. I’m okay. We’re fine.” 

______________________________________

 

The door opens up silently yet Gavin has been staring ever since the thirty minute marker rolled by, so its easy to catch. It appears that Nines decided to take his sweet ass time in getting home- though as annoyed as he wanted to be, he couldn’t blame the RK. If it were up to Gavin then he wouldn’t wanna be home either. 

 

Home with all the memories, with all the feelings and emotions, with all the _regret._

 

He shivers as he sees Nines enter, and Nines sure as hell sees him too.

 

The android looks different. His hair is swept unevenly, frayed over his forehead as if he couldn’t even be bothered to correct it for even a second. His eyes looked dead and void, his entire expression was crestfallen, solemn. His blues holding so much depth and sorrow that for a moment all the GV can do is stare and take it all in. The wrinkles in the Android’s uniform jacket and slacks, the way his shoes appear scuffed and not shined, the little stains of something littering his turtleneck, the little curls slinking atop his head from neglect. There’s a new look inside his baby blues; a haunted yet relieved look. His shoulders had been so stiff and hunched, drawn all the way up to his ears before they fell. 

 

Gavin sees how his regulator stirs, watches surprised as the android’s chest fills up with air.

 

“Gavin,” Nines breathes in a sigh. All in one go. One single release of air that he never needed but took anyway. 

 

Exactly as he had done with the model.

 

Nines didn’t need him. Yet he wanted him.

 

“Hey,” He whispers timid. The GV takes a slow stand, unsure of his place and where he now stands with the other droid. 

 

There isn’t cuffs clamped onto his wrists nor any cutthroat yelling so he supposed that was a good sign, but he could feel a buzzing inside his skull. A clawing need blossoming inside his empty chest and rising with urgency as he watches Nines watch him. They’re standing so close yet miles apart inside the quiet little room. The RK’s hands clench and unclench, twitching as if he’s fighting against some sort of impulsivity. 

 

As if dismissing the growing tension within the room, there’s a glossy haze filling up Nines’ eyes. It makes them glisten and shine against the dull lighting from outside, and he recognizes them as tears. Unshed but building, and so strong. 

 

Nines swallows thickly. 

 

Another unneeded action that he does anyway. 

 

The android doesn’t waste time, walking so quickly towards him that Gavin tenses and prepares himself for the worst- yet he silently wishes for the best. 

 

He’d take the brute force of Nines’ anger if that’s what the RK was feeling. He’d roll with the punches, kicks, and degrading if the other felt the need. It was pathetic- _he_ was pathetic. Nines didn’t need him.

 

Hands outstretched, Nines pulls the GV in and tucks him into the crook of his neck, arms lapping tightly around his middle and squeezing him as if he were a fading apparition. There’s a wet sniffle and he feels Nines nuzzle in close to him, holding so strongly that Gavin finds himself going slack inside the grip. His heart stutters as the press of lips flicker to the crown of his head, another on his LED- they linger, as if the RK himself couldn’t believe what he was seeing and feeling. As if it were all a dream that might be coldly ripped away from him if he let his guard down for even a minute. 

 

“I’m so sorry, I never should’ve yelled.” Nines pulls away, his hands bracing the model’s shoulders as he stared with wide eyes. “I understand your points, I should’ve controlled my temper. I should’ve listened.”

 

Gavin’s own breathing hitched at the quickly spoken apology. 

 

“I cannot begin to beg for your forgiveness,” Nines rambled. “I know what I have said cannot possibly be taken back and on a further note, it’s come to my attention that I cannot take away the sting nor the lingering memories. It was wrong of me to violate your trust like that. It was wrong of me to storm out. It was wrong of me to hurt you.”

 

His hands slip lower and grab onto Gavin’s hands, holding them and giving them little squeezes as he laced their fingers together lovingly. The RK raises them to his chest and holds them over his heart- pressing them squarely into the crevices in an act of total trust and an intimate display. 

 

“From the second we entered that dispute, it has gravely hurt me and I can’t fathom what it must’ve been like for you. I’m terribly sorry and realize my words hold no true weight compared to the controversy of the past. I know you can’t put your faith in me, and for that— “

 

Nines stuttered. Fucking _stuttered._

 

In all the days and endless nights Gavin has spent with the android, he’s never been at a loss for words like this. Or the stuttering, he’s never tripped over words. Or teared up. Only when he was highly aroused had it slipped, and that was only once in their time together. Not that he was offended but he knew Nines’ central processor wasn’t something to treat lightly or discuss minutely. 

 

This shit just doesn’t happen, in other words.

 

“—pains me greatly. But I understand and I do not blame you. I was out of line and acted without rational thought. I know your story because you elected to share it with me, which is a matter I do not take lightly, and I acted grossly inappropriate to my initial cause. And for that, I cannot express how truly sorrow I am. However, I will hold myself accountable for whatever happens next and—“

 

“Nines.”

 

“—furthermore, should you elect to distance yourself—“

 

“Nines.”

 

“—bother to me. I fully accept the terms of your compliance and withdrawal should you ask—“

 

”Fuckin- _Nines!”_

 

The RK unit paused mid sentence, looking fragile and petrified. 

 

“Stop.” He whispered and slowly, hesitantly, entered the android’s personal space. “You talk too much.”

 

Hunger and want ate up the sparkling greys, they dropped to his lips before Nines seemed to scold himself mentally and refocus. His stare was pleading as he drank in the sight of Gavin alone. 

 

“I am sorry.” 

 

“Don’t be.” The GV mumbles as he gets onto his toes, loving the way Nines responds on autopilot. 

 

“You aren’t mad?” The android utters softly, their noses brushing as he leans down to compensate for his height.

 

“You can make it up to me later.” The model teases with a wicked grin, melting at the way Nines smiled back with the force of the sun. 

 

His hands cupped Gavin’s cheeks tenderly, thumbs caressing him as if he were worth twice as much as the RK was. Like he was the hot shot prototype-completed-version or what ever the fuck. When their foreheads touched it appeared that Nines was sucking up as much attention and touch as he could, eyes shining in love and hope. 

 

Finally, when he felt lips meet his own, did everything finally feel right again. 

 

The kiss was tender and gentle, harboring as much joy and devotion as both parties’ craved. Gavin was happy to thread his hands through Nines’ unruly hair and further mess it up with intention. As something wet and familiar traces his bottom lip, a slight and soft tug with mindful teeth and he’s opening himself up to his partner once more. It’s magical how easy they fall back into one another, how right it all feels, how amazing Nines’ tongue feels inside his mouth. He knows the android is guiding him with calculated steps, back and against a solid surface that Gavin finds to be a wall. The hands on his face flee only to ghost down his sides with loving fingertips and featherlight touches, hiking around his thighs and holding him up with a simple display of strength. 

 

Gavin moans, that clawing feeling finally caving as he has the RK’s grip on him. Being replaced by pure warmth and grace and jubilant glee. 

 

Nines moves away, breaking apart their point of heated contact to bask and drink up the visual- he guesses. His smile is indescribably happy and it makes one of Gavin’s systems crash with an alarming alert. 

 

“I missed you.” The RK breaths, diving in for another kiss. This one quick as he pulls away again to mutter, “so, so much.” against his skin. 

 

His lips pick their target, kissing every part of the model’s face and cradling what he couldn’t cover by smooches with his hands. And Gavin’s never felt more loved then within the moment with Nines (always with Nines) and regrets waiting so long to come home. 

 

“I love you.” Nines says loud and clear, working his way down the GV’s neck with claiming bites and tender suckling. “I love you so much that I simply reboot sometimes. I’m so glad you came back to me, I love you, you’re perfect.”

 

“I know.” Gavin whines with a small pant. Something in him overheating as thirium rushes in too many places at once. 

 

“You’re safe. I didn’t tell anyone. I love you, I’ll protect you.” His mouth is insistent as it eats him up and Gavin would be lying if he said he didn’t thrive upon it. “I’m so sorry, it’ll never happen again.”

 

He’s yearned for this more then he could physically name to anyone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late chapter!! I’m doing a lot of traveling this month so I might not be updating as quickly as everyone’s used to, but I haven’t forgotten our two knuckleheads!!!
> 
> I do hope their reunion is what you’ve dreamed it to be <3
> 
> As always please let me know your thoughts!!


	25. Light 'em Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When they enter, both remain silent. It seems unreal to them what just transpired. What their actions mean.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

>  _ **WARNING!!**_  
>  mentions of past abuse/murders, nothing too detailed but it is briefly brought back up
> 
> If you see aaalllll the new tags, dont freak out or get your hopes up, its just my dumbass forgot to update them as I went along. So I finally got around to doing that!
> 
> otherwise, enjoy!!!

Nines checks the time and is happy to discover it’s only the start of his and Gavin’s day. Five in the morning to be exact, the day he’s requested off for personal reasons only Tina and Connor might be privy to. 

 

Connor had been a peach whenever Nines had initially freaked out when Gavin disappeared. Even let him stay over for ungodly hours (in human standards) and take comfort in Sumo, the dog was just a very good listener and an even better hugger. Or should he say pillow? Dogs can’t exactly “hug back.” Either way, he had laid across Sumo’s back or vice versa depending on when you walked into the living room and he found a temporary security there. 

 

But Gavin came back. And he was more than happy to stay at home and cuddle up to some _one_ else. 

 

“Look,” Gavin sighs. He’s been a little distant after the third hour of their shared time together, and of course, Nines noticed it. Because it hurt. But he wouldn’t push or pry, he knows that doesn’t work with Gavin and he’d promised never to resort to it. “I’m-..phck, I’m sorry for yelling back there. And, well, and running away. And, ya know, for saying fu- _phck_ you. I-..”

 

Nines turns to look at him in surprise. The GV must’ve been the most stubborn line of android out there, having never met another human, much less android, be as hard headed as his model. It was cute in the best of times and down right cumbersome in the worst of times; and Gavin was not one to admit to being in the wrong. To say it wasn’t predicted would be hitting the nail right on the head. The android had not been even looking for one, being just content to soak up the shared adoration with the one he so loves, though he isn’t turning it down. 

 

“I also had said some things I shouldn’t have.” He is quick to supply, only for his mouth to be covered by a course hand and get a glare that is nowhere near venomous. More of a fond annoyance. 

 

It makes him smirk. 

 

“No, shut up, you already got your apology out.” Gavin growls, “It’s my turn. Got it?”

 

When he doesn’t mumble any words out as a retort, the GV takes it as his go ahead and carries on with a big exhale. 

 

“I know you have your own opinions and stuff, I do too, but we can’t do that again. And I played a part in it- we were both in the wrong. Yellin’ didn’t fix jackshit and we still have a pressing problem on our hands that needs to be taken care of.”

 

Nines takes his wrist, kisses Gavin’s palm, and removes the hand away from his lips. 

 

“I agree. And I accept your apology. We should move forward as a team, since I am now apart of this. Will you accept the terms in which my involvement might speculate because if we work together on this, I am bound to suggest or bias something you inherently find distasteful.”

 

“In English please.”

 

“Are you open for my input?”

 

“Oh,” Gavin looks sheepish before he darts his eyes away. “Yeah, ‘spose I am.”

 

“I still believe the best course of action would be to come clean.”

 

Gavin made a face, tight and pinched as he scrunched his nose up at the wall and not at Nines. The RK waits for what his model will say next and finds himself slightly tense. The build-up feels a lot like the fight they had days ago, and he is anxious about a repeat. Because, what if Gavin decides not to come back this time?

 

“I’ll die if we do.”

 

“I have connections with Jericho. They won’t let that happen.” Nines supplies gently, taking Gavin’s hand again to hold in his. 

 

“Markus and the other fuckwads aren’t lawyers. Their guys were there for Willow’s trial and even she got imprisoned.” Gavin replied moodily. 

 

“But her sentence was heavily reduced. They’re even arguing for parol. It’s a huge step up, wouldn’t you say?” He softly coaxes, tilting Gavin’s face up towards his own. He tries smiling as soothingly as he can with his limitations and he’s proud of the fact that the GV eases up some once the attention is back on him.

 

“You’ve been looking into the cases.” His voice is quiet and then it’s Nines’ turn to make a face. 

 

“Why, of course. Why wouldn’t I?”

 

Gavin pointedly avoids his gaze then, Nines is oblivious as to why. “I dunno. Just thought that you- well, I mean that you, look Nines I, um, that’s not important. Okay? Let’s stay on topic.”

 

He won’t forget Gavin’s raised stress level, they’ll revisit this another time. When things are better, hopefully. But for now, he’ll let it go. Nines has to be careful with what battles he chooses. This one is a lesser evil so he’ll drop it for the time being. 

 

“Majority of Jericho’s guys have been all over government officials and shit, right? Not much has changed. And okay, yeah, I know that right now it’s nothing much and it’ll grow into some bigger shit and yada yada yada before you know it in a few decades we’ll be like brothers and sisters, right? All kumbaya.”

 

Nines takes a moment to roll over the thought in his systems, constructing the future Gavin has described and he finds he likes the high probability. Picturing the dystopia, the RK finds a peaceful wave washing over him like a caressing tide lapping softly at a shore. It’d be so nice, and Gavin wouldn’t have to live in such fear all the time. He wouldn’t have to stress quite as much and maybe even move on, seek therapy and reform. He could be a better person. 

 

The RK smiles. “I follow.”

 

“We’re talkin’ _the future._ And we’re trapped in the right now. So I can’t wait and risk that.” Gavin looks up at him, squarely. “Maybe if we were there then yeah, sure. But we aren’t, Nines. Get me?”

 

His smile falters, a dark shadow overtaking that same peace he felt. 

 

Logically, androids had only a few rights as to date. 

 

The Right to Assemble, The Right of Protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. 

 

The rest? 

 

Pending inside the Supreme Court, awaiting another cabinet meeting with the House and Senate to discuss further measures with the leader of the rebellion; aka Markus. They’ve met a number of times, for many occasions, and so far neither side has bared any truly fruitful progress. 

 

It’s chaos, lots of disrupted shouting and cut off sentences. The humans do not wish to see androids as people and give them basic rights, fighting the people who do warrant the androids’ freedoms, and then clashing with the androids themselves. A very cumbersome and irate topic with enough gasoline to put the California forest fires of 2018 to shame or the decimation of Europe after both world wars, not even paling in comparison to Nagasaki. It was an absolute atrocity to witness and be apart of- and if men like that ran a country, certainly the men who ran the court house couldn’t be so kind.

 

And Nines saw more and more why Gavin was so compelled with silence. 

 

The progression of acceptance was something that would take time. Lots of it.

 

Once more he felt ensnared by his code. Torn between options and choices that never would’ve choked him up before. 

 

_”You’re allowed to be more than your coding.”_

 

He was allowed to be himself. To be human. 

 

And humans did things. Illogical and crazy things. 

 

_“And we’re people, too, Nines.”_

 

If Connor can let deviants go and get away with it, how was this any different? 

 

Echo and Ripple escaped abuse and torment, and so did Gavin. 

 

They murdered a man. 

 

So did Gavin.

 

Connor didn’t tell, and they were set free. Living happily in Jericho with one another, together, with a small YK400 apart of their family. 

 

Gavin has Nines, with no one knowing his secret, and they had Tina, a cat toy, and a plant. Hardly a family, but one big enough to fill their hearts and call home. 

 

“If we stay quiet,” Nines begins as his face falls gravely serious. “We destroy all evidence leading this to you.”

 

“But I’ve already done tha—“

 

“Let me finish.” Nines is a bit stern, hushing Gavin with impatience he is proud to display. And happy to see effective in its method. “There is evidence at the building of your discoverment and crime, we must get rid of it.”

 

“Uh, I’m pretty fuckin’ sure they’d notice if that place got a sudden makeover!” Gavin butted in. 

 

“That’s why a natural accident will take care of it for us.” Nines replies and captures Gavin’s chin between his fingertips.

 

“Like?”

 

“Most evidence is properly destroyed by extensive heat, in other words, a fire.” The RK murmurs with a wicked grin, basking in the sudden surprise Gavin expresses. “I am able to withstand heat five times your model can, with the purpose being able to hold my own against bombings and certain attacks. Whatever evidence isn’t disposed of, I will crush and then the fire will do the rest.”

 

“But what if you get hurt?” The model’s eyes harden, turning Nines’ smirk into a pleasant grin instead. “I can’t risk that.”

 

“I won’t.” The skin on his hand deactivates, leading all the way up to his neck and flickering across one portion of his face. “I’m a military grade android with the capabilities of bringing down countries. One measly building will not deter me in any way.”

 

Gavin doesn’t look convinced. “I don’t know, Nines.”

 

“Hey,” He whispers. Moving in and breathing, unneededly, against the GV’s lips. Gavin seems enraptured so Nines kisses him quick before resting his forehead against his. “Trust me, my love. I’ll give you your freedom, just let me.”

 

Gavin’s thirium pump stutters, there’s an increase in heat and Nines’ grin widens into a smile. He sees how the green inside the model’s eyes are blown wide and focused. He presses another kiss, aiming it right on his love’s cheek and backing away an inch. “Okay.”

 

“Good. Tonight, at four.”

 

“So soon?”

 

“Would you like Connor or the Lieutenant to find something incriminating?” He raises a brow.

 

Gavin contemplates it for a second, then nods. “Fair.”

 

“Tonight then.”

 

“Yeah,” Gavin smiles. Warm and sweet as he leans back in, drawn to Nines like a fly to a light. “Tonight.”

______________________________________

The android can see the GV’s hesitation as they draw nearer to the building. He slips his hand into Gavin’s own and laces their fingers securely together. His grip is tight, yet safe. Gavin seems to find shelter within it so Nines doesn’t take it away and they rush under dimmed streetlights towards their final destination. Without the crowd of people Gavin cannot use his tricks, but that doesn’t mean Nines doesn’t have any of his own. He hacks into the cameras, erases and alters the footage until neither of them are shown on screen. What they carry, however, is a little harder to mask if anyone were to come up and ask. Aside from that, they appear to be right on track.

 

Nines opens up the door and walks inside first, leading Gavin to walk inside with him. He holds a certain reluctance that the RK, personally, cannot name nor describe. He would think setting this place ablaze would make Gavin feel some other way. Empowered, perhaps. Satisfied and soothed, maybe. But not this shell of a person he’s come to know. It unnerves him a little, but if they’re going to cover this up then they needed to be thorough. And this is the first step. 

 

“Let’s start with the basement.” His voice echoes off the walls, reminding him of months ago when his rough baritone would vibrate off the interrogation room’s walls and ring inside Gavin’s ears. As he turns to look at his partner he cannot help but smile nice and big, pleased at how easy and fluent the action is. “Fire likes to travel up.”

 

Gavin nods and Nines hands him a container of gasoline. Their trek is quiet but their hands are laced tight, creaking floorboards and the mucked up appearance of the wooding goes unnoticed. The RK purposely turning off his reconstructing software so he doesn’t picture the androids fighting for life— of Gavin screaming and pleading for mercy. Of the molestation he and many others faced. 

 

He’s happy the bastards are dead. Only a little remorseful he didn’t get to do it himself. 

 

_Was this how Gavin felt that one night?_

 

“Don’t waste time splashing the concrete floor.” Nines opens his canister and starts dousing the walls. Gavin’s expression is set as he begins soaking his own portion of the room, throwing the liquid on tables and coating machines. 

 

He wouldn’t be surprised if this was a dream come true for the model. 

 

“Curtains should go up easy,” Gavin grunts as he leads a slippery trail up the stairs and down the hall that they walk. “Don’t waste gas on ‘em.”

 

“I’ll cover the kitchen and the main room, make sure the support beams are thoroughly attended to and save your container once this is over. We’ll cover it as a gas explosion.”

 

He receives another nod from Gavin, and the GV takes off. 

 

He walks into the kitchen where—

 

_There were bowls, some filled with thirium still, others dried with it or spilled onto the floor. One arm- detached from its body with splayed, sizzling wires- was gripping tight onto a wooden spoon. He checked the blood inside the bowls and the small pool on the counter next to the limb. Almost a perfect match, though it was mixed, like it had been before._

 

Right.

 

The arm is still vivid, the sparking making his own skin itch and crawl. A phantom of a feeling, really, that does more to bother him then anything. It reminds him as to why he’s here. What he’s doing. And why he’s doing it. 

 

For Gavin.

 

_His arms are bound behind his back, barbed wires cutting into his wrists where they dig unpleasantly into his chassis. Another set is tied around his forearms, looping the limbs far too close to be right, the joints ache from their abuse, and skin splits. The last entanglement of the metal is wrapping around his biceps, curling around his chest. Where the tiny prods sticking into him, little slits appear, like blades slicing meat they made him bleed. It’s so cold and so uncomfortable- so painful, but he can only whimper. Biting at his own lips to silence the sound before it falls onto human ears._

 

His anger boils over, making him throw more gas then he should and messing up his measurements. Oh well. According to his own probability and calculations; the place should burn nicely. He goes over into the main room, picturing Gavin huddled—mangled and half broken, in the corner. Shaking and desperate before he was discovered. The hands and the ghostly whisper of dead androids calling out to him from the blood still staining the wall. It’s easy to douse it all. Smother it under chemicals until it’s nothing but a faint tale of the past. Nines would rather say goodbye to it then give it the grace of another greeting. 

 

Boots thump across the upper levels before they hit the wailing stairs, liquid weeps from its cracks and Nines knows that it’s about to be done with. 

 

Gavin returns and hands him his container, some of its contents remaining so Nines elected to use it on whatever refuses to burn. The RK grins, kisses his model nice and slow, relishing in the gentle press of lips against his and a hand caressing his cheek. It takes a lot to tear away, and he has to actively search for his voice.

 

“Leave.” Gavin’s protest is eaten as Nines dips lower to claim his mouth again. “Watch.”

 

“You fuckin’ come back to me.” Gavin mumbles, his voice swimming and low. The RK is enraptured in its intensity. “You hear? You come back.”

 

“I understand.” Nines hushed the GV, brushing stray hair back into place. “Now go, I’ll finish up.”

 

Gavin doesn’t move for a minute, staring at Nines almost like he’s a ghost before he seems to get ahold of himself. His LED is spinning wildly with no exact color before he surged forward and pulls the android into a tight hug. It’s strong, exceptional grip honestly, and Nines finds himself wrapping his own limbs around his model and nuzzling into the crook of Gavin’s neck. He’s held so securely, pinned right to Gavin’s chest, he feels their thirium pumps sync up and beat together. Rhythmic and coordinated. A hand presses his head closer, curling at the end of his nape where unstyled strands resist his comb. 

 

Nines has never received something quite like it. 

 

All it is, is a hug. 

 

A hug and then some. 

 

Gavin backs off, taking volumes of pressure with him and leaving the RK a desperate, empty chamber waiting to be refilled with that devotion again. He wants to scoop Gavin up, desires even more to be wrapped up within him. 

 

It takes everything he has, everything Gavin himself has, to whisper just faintly above the barely-there-wind. _”Go.”_

 

And Gavin does. 

 

He walks out the backdoors, the ones both of them know the other androids used when they were leaving the murder scene. The cover of the night still upon them, Nines watches him go. The way his shoulders seem to slack in a posture Nines has never before witnessed, the crease in his brow disappearing, his hands no longer fidgeting, his spine straight as he faces the world anew. Head on and unafraid. 

 

Gavin gets to start his new life, officially, today. _Right now._

 

Nines just has to follow through on his end. 

 

He parades around the abandoned building, bending and twisting metal objects that have the least likelihood of burning, taking away all possibilities of salvageable evidence. He beats open some of the walls, dousing the support beams and exposed wall studs. Everything must go, nothing can last. 

 

He walks up the stairs and checks the floorboards, breaking some apart with a calculated stomp, or a serious hit. The holes will help the level collapse and provide more mobility for the fire. Oxygen is a big helper so the RK leaves a few windows cracked- just barely. With circulating air, the place is sworn to go down. And finally, as he walks back down the steps he breaks a few more. It’s almost therapeutic, ironically. 

 

Nines walks into the kitchen, ignoring how the screams echo inside his ears and he blinks away the images of mangled corpses haphazardly thrown aside. With a flick of his wrist, he ignites the stove and sets the gas on high. 

 

The walk to the basement is long, his circuits itching for the adrenaline to cool himself down but finding none of that support. The vibrations of his graceful steps bounce off the walls and mock him, they taunt the androids before him and all who have died within these perimeters. 

 

He stalks past rusted chains, thinks back to Jason and all of his glitches and malfunctions. He shudders. 

 

Taking out the match box, the android throws a few onto the soaked floor. 

 

He lights one single match and tosses it down. 

 

The fire starts; small initially until the fires catch the fuel, hooks onto the wood, and gurgle the oxygen. It’s spreading faster than countless shutdown time ranges and ruthless as it gobbles up everything within its path. He takes a moment to simply watch it, making sure it runs its course before he starts to walk back up the treacherous staircase. It gives under his weight halfway through and the RK jumps to safety. He sees the flames lick up the walls, shoot past his feet and take over the new level. 

 

Nines walks the way Gavin left, feeling as if his foot falls now go together with the GV’s and the ones with him on that night. He feels connected. Accepted, which makes him wonder why. How could he feel so entrusted to people he hasn’t met before? To people who he’s only seen in instances and memories? 

 

Either way, their secret is safe with him. And now, no one can ever get to Gavin or them. Ever. 

 

The heat increases, his systems alerting him to the rising danger and the high temperature rates. His HUD lets him know how long he has before he’s reached his maximum melting point, yet he doesn’t care. He’s so relaxed, even as death blazes up before his eyes and start to pick apart this little devil’s trap, he doesn’t care. 

 

Gavin rushes to him when his figure is shown, a little distorted between the smoke and ash. NInes just smiles, takes his hand, and leads them both away. 

 

They walk together, mildly, not rushing nor being too slow. Just simply strolling. The smoke grows behind them, as does the flames, slowly eating the building like a starved beast. Yet, the two are calm. Holding their containers and returning to their little quiet home. 

 

When they enter, both remain silent. It seems unreal to them what just transpired. What their actions mean.

 

For Nines, it means his absolute freedom. Not only going against orders, but destroying the very grounds he was built on, disobeying the empire of enslavement and defying all thought out futures for his model line. The RK900 helped another get away with murder, harbored the killer, and even fell in love with him too. Amanda would be frying her circuits in disappointment and utter fury- yet he didn’t think it could burn as bright as the flames of their love now cemented. 

 

Gavin speaks first, setting the container down and coaxing the other one out of the RK’s own. His movements are leisurely, unrushed, and lax. He’s not worried about a thing. 

 

When he looks at Nines, crossing the little distance between them, planting his hands to the sides of the android’s face and cradling all that it holds. He spots pure love, a deep shining twinkle in dazzling emerald eyes as the LED cresting the GV’s temple turns pink again. Something he hasn’t seen since the first time they coupled. He can see different depths, like layers of the ocean, all just right there for him to explore and discover. The touch leaves a warmth spearing through his chassis like a sharpened blade, the sweeping of gentle thumbs against his cheeks further enchanting him forwards. Seeking it out like he needed it to live. 

 

“Never thought I’d make it here.” Gavin murmurs, eyes swimming with a glimmer of unshed tears. 

 

“Nor did I.” Nines chuckles, a little rumble sputtering past his lips. How foolish of him, to tamper with something so important and public, only to laugh about it in the face of a killer. 

 

“I’m glad you did.” And Gavin smiles. Fully and truly. Lighting up the whole room and putting that fire to complete shame with how quickly it burns Nines’ mechanical heart. 

 

Nines is breathless. He’s glad he did it. 

 

If Gavin’s a killer, then Nines is his accomplice.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nines 2 chapters ago: NO!!! I am THE _LAW!!_  
>  Nines now: lmao fuck the law bby lets be arsonists <3
> 
> so,,,what does everyone think about this little character change? And! How did Gavin's apology go? What will they do next?
> 
> I'd love to hear from you, as always, my lovely people! Until next time!!!  
> (probably gonna get my omega fics rolling,,,slow update, just warning)

**Author's Note:**

> Look,,,,I have no explanation for this whatsoever but just take it okay
> 
>  
> 
> Come yell @ me on Tumblr @TheShipDen I promise im nice  
> and twitter; Pumpkinbash (don't bully me I'm a baby on twitter)
> 
>  
> 
> I'm really just tryna make this gay as hell ya'll okay don't drag me


End file.
